TERAMO. Also of interest to Abruzzo is the anti-drug operation which, since the first light of dawn, the financiers of the provincial command of Bari and the central organized crime investigation service have been carrying out, with the support of the local air-naval operations department and the provincial command of the Foggia Financial Police. The order, issued by the investigating judge of the Bari court at the request of the district anti-mafia directorate, concerns the application of 31 precautionary measures (of which 15 in prison, 14 under house arrest and 2 recipients of the residence obligation) to individuals residing in the provinces of Teramo, Chieti, Bari, Bat and Foggia.
Furthermore, a preventive seizure decree was issued for assets worth over 2 million euros, including 28 agricultural lands, 7 apartments, 900 thousand euros in cash, life insurance policies, active current account balances and 2 cars. The suspects targeted by these restrictive measures are suspected, in various capacities, of association aimed at trafficking in narcotic or psychotropic substances, as well as production, trafficking and illicit possession of the same. In a note we read that “today’s operation constitutes the epilogue of a complex investigative activity which has made it possible to reveal the existence of a criminal group with operational headquarters in the province of Foggia and offshoots in those of Bari and Bat” .
Approximately 150 kg of hashish and 200 thousand euros in cash were seized, with several arrests made in flagrante delicto. As a note informs, the investigators’ findings would have made it possible to demonstrate how the association was “characterized by a high organizational capacity and equipped with a significant availability of financial and instrumental means, having a common fund and real accounting of operation”. In particular, the organisation, through the use of vehicles with double bottoms, would have supplied narcotics, in a systematic and widespread manner, to various squares in the provinces of Foggia, Bari and Barletta-Andria-Trani, as well as the coastal areas of Abruzzo.
Furthermore, encrypted and “closed circuit” communication tools would have been used, camouflaging illicit activities in structures used for commercial activities. To mislead the investigations, suggestive language was used in the conversations, which conventionally defined the drug with terms such as “1p” to indicate the 100 gram block or simply “una” referring to a case of approximately 30 kg, while the money was identified with the word “documents”.
