Two criminal associations dedicated to drug trafficking and active in the provinces of Cremona, Trento, Turin, Milan, Bergamo, Brescia, Bolzano, Verona, Pavia and Livorno, were defeated by the Guardia di Finanza, which made 38 arrests.
The operation began at the first light of dawn, and involved the Financiers of the Provincial Command of Trento, assisted by personnel from the Scico, from the territorial departments of the Corps on the national territory and from the Bolzano Air Section.
The order, issued by the investigating judge of the Court of Trento at the request of the local DDA, resulted in 27 people in prison and 11 under forced residenceas well as the seizure of assets and financial resources for over 10 million euros. Most of those arrested, 36, are foreign nationals (Albanians, Tunisians, Moroccans and Portuguese).
The detailed and complex investigation activity started in December 2021 and conducted by the Gico of the Economic-Financial Police Unit of the Guardia di Finanza of Trento.
According to the indictment, the two criminal associations worked together in manage cocaine, hashish, marijuana and heroin trafficking coming from other Italian regions and destined almost entirely for the Trentino area.
After the first suspicions, in 2021, a series of investigations followed, which allowed for identify the main customers and suppliers of the narcotic substance, to identify the dense network of participants of the two criminal groups and to completely reconstruct their operations.
The drugs, thanks to agreements between the two associations, arrived in the Trentino area through couriers, including one from Cremonawho used specially modified cars equipped with ingenious double bottoms.
Subsequently, the suspects operating in the Trentino area, a total of 26 with various roles and all subject to arrest orders, were responsible for cutting and packaging the drugs inside some rented apartments, also using paprika to disguise their odor.
The doses thus composed were hidden along the banks of rivers or within a public park for subsequent transfer to final consumers.
In other cases, it emerged that the suspects used cars without insurance coverage and left in public car parks, near the historic center of Trento, as “temporary warehouses” for the storage of the narcotic substance, awaiting the next and imminent sale.
The sale of the narcotic substance usually took place in Trento and Roveretonear or inside public parks and gardens and was aimed at a dense network of customers, including young ones.
During the investigations, numerous findings were carried out, also through the use of the canine units of the Guardia di Finanza, which allowed 19 subjects to be arrested in flagrante delicto and to the seizure of over 49 kg of hashish, 20 kg of cocaine, over 5 kg of heroin, cutting substances for approximately 12k, 1 firearm, cash for over 111,000 euros and various materials for drug packaging.
The investigators also managed to reconstruct the criminal activity also from an economic and patrimonial point of view. In fact, a significant availability of cash emerged, revealed by the numerous immediate payments for drugs, as well as by the seizures of significant quantities of money.
For some of the members of the two organizations, the income deriving from drug dealing represented a sort of additional and parallel income compared to ordinary legitimate work activity. However, for most of them, income from drug trafficking was their only source of wealth.
By analyzing the quantities purchased, the purchase prices, the cuts of the pure substance (3 kg of substance to be marketed were obtained from 1 kg of cocaine), the doses obtainable per kilogram (equal to approximately 5000 doses for one kg of cut cocaine), the average sales price per retail dose was therefore the illicit profit that the gangs have obtained from the trafficking of narcotic substances has been quantified, determined to be over 10 million euros.
The execution of the provisions of the Judicial Authority, which required the use of approximately 100 soldiers, also made it possible to seize the active balances of the current accounts and the financial resources of the suspects.
LaBos
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