It was supposed to be a package containing the necessary supplies for the inmates, but instead there were drugs inside. A lot. The amazement of penitentiary police it was enormous when he discovered that those who introduced the narcotic substance within the prison walls were those who were supposed to provide spiritual assistance and promote social reintegration.
In fact, it would have been the chaplain of the district house, a 63-year-old priest, parish priest of the Salesian Institute of Genzano, who took her into the Velletri prison. He ended up in handcuffs Maurizio Verlezzaparish priest of the religious center in via Mazzini and director of the Don Bosco oratory, a figure known throughout the national territory for his activity in the field of volunteering.
Baby drug courier repents: kilos of substances found, 4 arrested
Don Maurizio Verlezza stopped
Don Maurizio, who recently became curate of the Veliterna detention facility, was found in possession of almost a kilo of marijuana, over fifty grams of cocaine and, after the search of his apartment inside the Salesian Castelli facility, also of a huge sum of money. In the package, carefully hidden among clothing and personal hygiene objects, the officers also found two smartphones, seized by security, which would probably have been used to communicate with the outside world. The arrest of the 63-year-old religious man has shocked the community of faithful in Genzano who for years have considered him a solid point of reference, so much so that there is disbelief and no desire to comment.
COUNTRY UNDER SHOCK
After the checks, as is customary, a search was ordered at the parish priest’s house: in the religious institute, over twenty thousand euros in cash were found and seized, hidden in the accommodation occupied by the priest, previously head of the San Marco church in Latin. The figure of the chaplain in penitentiary institutions is part of the re-educational treatment as it guarantees the religious sentiment of each inmate: by law he exercises the right to visit each cell without being accompanied by officers, precisely to guarantee maximum confidentiality both during the sacrament and during of the interview with the prisoner. The operation of the penitentiary police is part of the investigation activities in prison, where drugs had previously been introduced by a mother visiting her detained son: the woman was discovered and arrested. The priest was taken to prison waiting to be heard by the judicial authorities of Velletri.
PREVIOUS
It is not the first case of chaplains involved in similar scandals: two years ago in Sicily a Franciscan was arrested who, among other things, before donning the cassock, had been a carabiniere. A few days ago a foreign priest, Milan Palkovic, 58 years old, visiting Rome with a group of compatriots, was blocked by state police officers in St. Peter’s Square with a (loaded) compressed air gun together with a screwdriver and a cutter. The religious man had tried to justify himself, but was not believed by the police at the Borgo police station, who reported him on the loose. But investigators suspect that in reality the bag with the gun belonged to one of the pilgrims on whom investigations were carried out to better understand what happened. The suspicion is that the real owner of the backpack and its contents was the tourist who was next to the religious man and who may have given it to the priest to evade security checks within the Vatican walls.
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