Upon delegation from the Public Prosecutor's Office of Palermo, the Penitentiary Police of the Sicily Regional Investigation Unit, with the coordination of the Central Investigation Unit of Rome, at the end of a complex investigation activity, carried out an order issued by the Judge for investigations preliminaries of the Court of Palermo. With it was ordered the precautionary measure of custody in prison against five people, three for corruption and two also for drug trade. Among those arrested, a prison police officer, already suspended from service, and two detainees.
The investigations, conducted by the Investigative Unit of the Penitentiary Police, together with the men of the Department of the Ucciardone 'Calogero Di Bona' detention house, made it possible to ascertain that an agent, in force at the Palermo institute, would have accepted sums of money to introduce a smartphone and two mini-phones inside the prison. The three devices were intended for an inmate convicted by the Court of Appeal of Palermo for the murder of Andrea Cusimano in August 2017. The unfaithful agent would have received the sum of 500 euros to carry out the act contrary to the duties of his office .
The delivery of the mobile phones was unsuccessful thanks to the intervention of the investigative service of the Penitentiary Police which proceeded to seize the devices. Furthermore, with specific telephone and environmental wiretapping, it was possible to document some episodes in which cell phones illegally brought into prison were used by inmates to enter into negotiations for the sale of narcotic substances. In one case, one of those arrested dealt by telephone with a prisoner in the Augusta prison the sale to accomplices in freedom of a batch of about 5 kilograms of narcotic substance.
Thanks to the wiretapping, a group of inmates was also identified who constantly communicated with the outside world through miniphone illegally brought into prison. The members of this group used the complicity of external subjects to introduce cell phones and drugs into the institute through various methods, including throwing them inside the walls from the surrounding streets. The video footage arranged by the Public Prosecutor's Office made it possible in particular to immortalize various mobile phone launches, commissioned by prisoners. In another case, however, one of the restricted subjects had reached an agreement by telephone with a freed accomplice to throw hashish.
The interception activities have finally revealed the existence of a real trade of miniphone and sim-cards within the Ucciardone, with the existence of 'tariff rates' both for the introduction of these goods within the walls of the institute, and for their subsequent resale to other prisoners. For this reason, two other restricted ones were also registered in the register of suspects: one of them promised the unfaithful agent the sum of 1.500 euros for the introduction of mobile phones in prison; the other would have offered another agent a sum of money for the same purpose.
The investigations have shown how the availability of a mobile phone during the period of detention is functional to the pursuit of criminal objectives and to cultivate a supremacy in prison relations. This availability allows the prisoner to maintain continuous relations with his / her external environment of origin and even to continue to issue criminal orders to be carried out outside the prison structure, with evident negative effects on the satisfaction of any precautionary needs, on the practicability of re-education courses and , more generally, on public order.
Finally, it should be highlighted how, at the time of the facts for which we proceed (April - 4 October 2020), the introduction of mobile phones in prisons was not yet criminally sanctioned, assuming merely disciplinary relevance. Only from 22 October, with the entry into force of Legislative Decree 130/2020 wanted by Minister Bonafede, was art. 391-ter of the criminal code, which punishes the introduction and use of such communication devices in prison.