More convictions for the members of the dismantled organization dedicated to the trafficking and dealing of narcotics in the popular neighborhood of Sappusi in Marsala, dismantled by the Carabinieri as part of an anti-drug operation carried out on February 17, 2023, called Virgilio. The Gup of the Court of Palermo issued a sentence of conviction against seven defendants on June 25.
The penalties
The heavy sentences imposed, despite the reduction of the abbreviated procedure, involved 5 Marsalesi and 2 Palermo, with sentences ranging from 7 to 19 years of imprisonment. The preliminary investigations and the accusation in the trial were supported by the District Attorney’s Office of Palermo, after the transmission of the preliminary investigation file by the Marsala Attorney’s Office, which coordinated the investigations carried out by the Carabinieri of the Marsala Company.
On December 14, two other defendants involved in the same Virgilio operation, for whom the hypothesis of association had not been contested, were sentenced, with an abbreviated trial, by the investigating judge of the Court of Marsala, with sentences ranging from 5 to 8 years of imprisonment. The sentence therefore recognizes the operation of a real criminal association aimed at drug trafficking in the Marsala neighborhood of Sappusi. The trial is still underway before the Court of Marsala, regarding the remaining eleven defendants, involved in the same investigation, who have decided to be judged through the ordinary procedure.
The operation
The GIP of the Court of Marsala, at the request of the Marsala Prosecutor’s Office, ordered precautionary measures against 14 suspects (11 in prison, 2 banned from residing in the municipality of Marsala and one obliged to reside in the aforementioned municipality), for the crimes of trafficking and dealing in narcotics (crack, heroin and cocaine), extortion, money laundering and personal injury. The investigators brought to light a “drug dealing square” in the popular neighborhood of “Sappusi”, near the center of Marsala, managed by three groups of alleged drug dealers, always led by a woman. Some of the suspects were also allegedly responsible for extortion, personal injury and even an attempted kidnapping for the collection of debts from insolvent buyers.
Among the crack users, there is also a young man from a wealthy family who, in less than a year, allegedly purchased more than 1,300 doses of the drug, paying over 70,000 euros, as well as numerous buyers who allegedly gave the pushers their Citizenship Income card (providing the relative PINs) in exchange for the drugs. Some of the suspects, a few months ago, were also reported on a social network, by citizens of Marsala, as dealers responsible for the ruin of many local youths
