It’s February 2, 2023, so practically a short time ago. It’s six in the afternoon and there are police cameras monitoring the SJ Auto dealership in Barcelona. And the military sees the arrival of Filippo Benenati and Salvatore Iannello, they are the “emerging” drug dealing couple codified in this new investigation for the Tyrrhenian area. With them there are two representatives of a group from Catania, Nando Russo and Sebastiano Russo. The very emblematic story is reconstructed in detail in his custody order by investigating judge Simona Finocchiaro.
Shortly afterwards – says the investigating judge Finocchiaro -, the Russo and Benenati brothers – taking care that the gate of the resale remained closed and Iannello kept watch at the entrance, together with the other companion of the Russos – went aside inside, evidently to discuss the drug supply; that the three were discussing delicate illicit matters emerged from the particular precautions that Iannello Salvatore adopted by signaling the Catanian to knock on the door in case of alarm. From the conversation – says the investigating judge -, it emerged that the quantity of narcotic the sale of which they were negotiating was equal to approximately seventeen kilograms (exactly 16,850 kg – which at the price of 1.5 euros per gram would have entailed an expense of over twenty-five thousand EUR).
The subject of the dispute was, however, also another type of narcotic (which will be understood to be “grass”, i.e. marijuana), for which Benenati Filippo intended to charge a price, again at wholesale, of 4.6 euros per gram ; Iannello Salvatore specified that that type had always cost him a price of 4.5 euros.
Russo Sebastiano, for his part, contested that Salvatore had told him that, for that specific type, 3.8 euros were needed (to be understood, reasonably, per gram). Russo, therefore, insisted on having the final price indicated, to which Benenati Filippo reiterated that he could not go lower than 4.6 (per gram), because that substance (called “grass”, i.e. marijuana) did not belong only to him ; Benenati therefore implied that he had a business partner, with whom he had also purchased 400 kilograms of “smoke”, i.e. hashish.
Russo Sebastiano, who initially said he was not interested in “smoking”, reiterated his previously made offer of “three”. The reference was to what was agreed during the conversation captured between Iannello Salvatore with a person with a Catanese accent, dated 5 January 2023, from which it emerged that the man from Catania was interested in purchasing the substance for which he was offering, precisely, the price of three euros per gram.
To confirm the seriousness of the offer and the actual availability of the narcotic substance – continues investigating judge Finocchiaro -, Benenati also showed his interlocutors a quantity of drugs which he was in possession of at that moment. In the continuation of the conversation, given the reluctance of the people of Catania to adapt to the price charged by Benenati, Iannello Salvatore, confirming the marked danger, which allowed him to deal on an equal footing with subjects clearly orbiting in fearsome drug trafficking circuits, urged the latter not to to carry out the supplies (“But if you have to lose, leave them alone, go”), the people of Catania for their part reaffirmed their criminal weight with not-so-veiled threats (“You have to be careful, Iannello, that you inc. because here we are too get angry… let’s risk it… eh!”). Russo Sebastiano therefore considered taking the marijuana-type narcotic substance, amounting to fifty kilograms, for himself alone. Benenati reiterated that he could only go slightly below the price he intended to charge him, i.e. 4.6 euros per gram, because he had purchased “the grass” with his partner and had expenses to bear relating to custody, warehouse, logistics , transportation. It was then understood – explains the investigating judge – that Benenati Filippo, with the full contribution of Iannello, was offering a total of two hundred and fifty (250) kilograms of narcotic type “hashish” (exactly a lower quality product called “rubio”) to the price of 1.50 euros per gram, and 50 kilograms of marijuana.
