MESSINA – Eighty-five people in prison, 16 of whom are already detained, and 27 under house arrest. These are the numbers of the maxi anti-drug operation of the Messina Prosecutor’s Office which arose from three separate investigations. The investigation revealed the existence of various criminal organizations in the Barcelona area active in drug trafficking, with links to Calabrian structures and groups in Campania, Lombardy and abroad. There are various drug supply channels: Calabria for cocaine; provinces of Naples and Milan and Spain for hashish; and the Netherlands for spice, a synthetic cannabinoid with a psychotropic effect that is extremely harmful to health.
The investigations made use of wiretaps, observation and shadowing services with arrests and seizures of narcotic substances and statements from justice collaborators. The Carabinieri seized 120 kilograms of drugs, including cocaine, hashish and marijuana, 226,000 euros in cash, two rifles and three pistols with the serial number cancelled, arrested 23 people in flagrante delicto and reported 150 drug users to the prefecture. In the Giostra district of Messina there would have been ‘forts’ built in the houses of associates to store and guard drugs. The group would have had the capacity to invoice 500 thousand euros per month which flowed into a common fund.
Among the people involved were also a penitentiary police officer and a nurse from the ASP of Messina: in the Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto prison the officer would have assisted one of the leaders of the criminal group, who was detained, by giving him narcotics, which were then distributed in the penitentiary institute, while the nurse allegedly introduced the drugs into the prison, which was then given to some inmates. The strong pressure exerted by affiliates on some drug dealers, their buyers, to force them to honor drug debts owed to the gang also emerged.
