Ready to do anything to make money. Some of them would not have hesitated to take up arms in an unsuccessful attempt to recover a large load of contraband cigarettes previously seized. It is no coincidence that “Recover” is the name used for the operation carried out by the Carabinieri of the Bat Provincial Command, under the coordination of the Trani Prosecutor’s Office, which led to precautionary measures against 13 peoplefour of whom were locked up in prison while the other nine were placed under house arrest.
The blitz, with over 70 members of the Carabinieri involved, took place at dawn on Monday 1st July in the central areas of the city. A helicopter flew over the area shortly after 4 in the morning: three were arrested in Bisceglie (44-year-old Pietro Vallisa, 58-year-old Francesco Sgroni and Adamo Zingarelli) while Diego Lorusso, 35, was picked up by the Carabinieri of Desio (Monza and Brianza).
According to the reconstruction, the suspects pretended to be fishermen and used small boats on which they loaded fish products in order to better hide considerable quantities of smuggled cigarettes from the Balkan routeindicated with the terms “grouper” or “gilt-head bream”with the aim of avoiding possible telephone and environmental interceptions. The organization was used also traffic in narcotic substanceswhich came from Turin to be sold in the drug dealing squares of Bisceglie and other neighbouring towns, with an estimated turnover of between 5 and 10 thousand Euros per day, as underlined by Colonel Massimiliano GalassoProvincial Commander of the Carabinieri.
The investigation was launched in June 2022 and concluded last February. A key moment is undoubtedly the seizure of over a ton of contraband cigarettes of foreign origin, for an estimated value of three million euros. “Some suspects attempted to take possession of the load by attempting an armed robbery inside the warehouse where the goods had been stored for a month and a half. A clear sign of the effrontery that characterized them” explained the Lieutenant Alessandro RundoCommander of the Carabinieri of Bisceglie, specifying that the navy is in no way involved in the affair.
The plague of cigarette smuggling gripped Bisceglie for over two decades, between the late 1970s and the early 2000s, due to the city’s geographical position, which criminal organizations considered favorable for the landing of boats coming from the other side of the Adriatic.
Tuesday 2 July 2024
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