BOLZANO. A bar in the city center that has become a sort of “central center” for cocaine dealing in Bolzano: the “Devil’s Pub” in Via Torino, in the South Tyrolean capital, will remain closed for a month.
The commissioner’s provision (suspension of the license and immediate closure of the pub) which will last 30 days is the direct consequence of the serious fact ascertained in the last few days: yesterday was the culminating moment of the operation, when a check carried out on Tuesday afternoon revealed the possession by a 36 year old Albanian citizen of 24 heat-sealed wrappers containing cocaine packaged and ready for trafficking. The man kept the drugs inside some packs of his own cigarettes in the bar where he worked and of which he was in fact the manager: in the same context, thanks to the intervention of the financial police’s drug-sniffing dog, during the search extended to the car used by the man and parked in front of the pub, another 62 heat-sealed doses of cocaine were found and seizedfor a total weight of 65 grams.
The subsequent search carried out at the home where the man and the actual owner of the “Devil’s Pub” live together made it possible to find and seize a sum of money of around 25,000 euros in cashconsidered proceeds from the drug dealing activity.
At that point the 36-year-old was arrested in the act of committing the crime of possession for the purpose of dealing drugs.
The police commissioner of Bolzano Paolo Sartori has arranged the suspension of the license and the immediate closure of the “Devil’s Pub” for 30 days: it is, also in this case, a measure aimed at ensuring that a situation that compromised public order and safety is interrupted.
“The use of a public business located in the city center as a point of reference for drug dealing is one unacceptable severity“, Commissioner Sartori wanted to specify. “Public order and safety, as well as the tranquility of citizens and the protection of individual health, are primary goods perceived by the entire population as such: for these reasons our task is to to protect them with the utmost rigor, preventing situations that put people’s safety at risk from recurring. The suspension of the license and the simultaneous closure of this public establishment, therefore, have the aim of put a stop to a problem that could have caused tragic repercussions in terms of public order and citizen safety”.
