Aggravated theft of cancer drugs, precautionary orders for 4 individuals

The State Police of Trieste and the Investigative Unit of the Provincial Command of the Carabinieri, with the operational support of the policemen of the Mobile Squad of the Police Headquarters of Naples, of the Carabinieri Companies of Naples Vomero, Stella and Marano of Naples as well as of the Tenence of Melito of Naples, they carried out two precautionary orders against 4 subjects residing in the Neapolitan area, investigated in competition for the crime of aggravated theft of oncological drugs at the Maggiore hospital of Trieste for a value of about 400 thousand euros, made in February 2019.

Investigations revealed that the arrested people made repeated inspections near the hospital and, once they were certain they could hit safely, they took advantage of the darkness and the absence of health personnel to gain access to it. Here, misrepresented by balaclavas and wearing gloves, they forced doors and windows until they reached the pharmacy warehouse and, specifically, the refrigerated cabinets containing very high cost medicines intended for patients suffering from tumor pathologies. Once the most economically valuable cancer drugs were removed, they quickly moved away from the hospital, fleeing to the highway.

The investigations on highway transits and the acquisition of video surveillance videos, have made it possible to trace a car headed to a rental company, a vehicle that, coming from Naples, had also reached Trieste on the previous 31 January and 5 - 6 February 2019. , dates of probable inspections in anticipation of the theft.

On this last occasion, the involvement of an additional vehicle, always registered in the name of a rental company that no longer exists, was ascertained. The analysis of the movements of the cars made it possible to ascertain their movements on the National Territory, highlighting, during the period of interest, movements between Naples - Trieste and Milan.

At the same time, an accurate analysis of the telephone records was carried out, an activity that, initially, allowed to identify the mobile radio users used to commit the theft on 12 February 2019.

Despite the complexity of the investigation, an Egyptian group sitting in Lombardy was also identified, responsible for receiving drugs outside national borders (Egypt, France and Turkey).

The activity carried out by the Trieste investigators came up with another important investigation relating to the theft of medicines that took place in 2018, with a criminal proceeding instituted at the Public Prosecutor's Office of Cremona, after which multiple custodial orders were carried out and searches that allowed to seize a large quantity of drugs previously stolen in other hospitals, money counted and more.

The work of the Prosecutor of Trieste and of the investigators of the Mobile Squad and the Carabinieri Investigative Unit of Trieste, however, has continued unceasingly to find also the material perpetrators of the theft perpetrated at the Ospedale Maggiore and, nevertheless, rebuild the illicit chain followed by the drugs stolen.

Further articulated and complex analyzes of telephone and telematic records were also carried out, at the end of which the identification of the Neapolitan-born criminal association assigned to the organization and commission of the theft in question was reached.

The significant result obtained from the investigations conducted, corroborated by a multitude of objective data resulting from intense months of analysis, processing of feedback and out-of-office pg services, has allowed the PM holder of the procedural file to obtain from the GIP the issue of the precautionary measures in jail against the 4 subjects all burdened by precedents for crimes against property, arrested and associated with the district house of Naples.

As part of the criminal proceeding, other subjects are investigated who have had different roles both in the theft and in the reception of stolen medicines and therefore investigations continue.

Aggravated theft of cancer drugs, precautionary orders for 4 individuals