Carabinieri in action in Catania to combat drug dealing in the centre, in the nightlife area, between via Auteri and piazza Currò. A 25-year-old foreigner was arrested for possession of narcotic substances for the purpose of trafficking.
The Carabinieri had discovered that the pusher was particularly active in that area, acting with a modus operandi which involved meeting “customers” near a shop. The young man, at any time of the day or night, pretending to be a customer of the business or a frequenter of the nightlife, used to stop in front of the entrance door of the business, where he was reached on foot by the buyers, who immediately after the sale of drugs, disappeared among the crowds in the nearby streets.
The carabinieri thus went into action, camouflaging themselves among the crowd so as not to be noticed. On a previous occasion, the pusher, always extremely cautious, immediately ran away after seeing a passing police vehicle from afar. The Carabinieri followed all the movements of the young man, who was observed as he lowered the seat of a Honda SH scooter parked in front of the usual shop, and then set off towards Via Auteri, probably to start the “deliveries”. At that point, given the favorable opportunity, the soldiers, after having circled the block, launched the blitz, blocking him after intercepting him in several directions, to prevent him from escaping.
Once the search began, the young man was immediately found wearing several silver wrappers containing around ten grams of marijuana and hashish. In the compartment under the scooter’s seat, locked by the pusher, there was a pouch with another 50 doses of marijuana, weighing more than half a pound in total, and 20 doses of hashish, weighing a total of about fifteen grams.
All the drugs were seized. The twenty-five-year-old, arrested, was taken to the Catania prison in Piazza Lanza, at the disposal of the judicial authority, which then validated the arrest and ordered the foreigner to report to the judicial police.
