Palermo: operation Bag of the State Police

The State Police, under delegation from the District Directorate of Palermo, executed a precautionary custody order, issued by the Judge for Preliminary Investigations of Palermo, against 17 suspects held responsible, for various reasons, for criminal association aimed at drug trafficking, as well as the sale and transfer of narcotic substances.

In particular, the Flying Squad carried out a precautionary custody measure in prison against suspects, considered to be seriously suspected of the crime of criminal conspiracy aimed at drug trafficking (Article 74 of the law on drugs.

Furthermore, the same ordinance ordered the subjection to precautionary measures against subjects considered seriously suspected of selling narcotic substances (Article 73 of the narcotics law):

The operation stems from an articulated investigation activity, coordinated by the Public Prosecutor of Palermo - Anti-Mafia District Directorate and launched between 2018 and 2020, on a criminal context dedicated to drug trafficking and particularly active in the district area of Brancaccio – historic enclave of Cosa Nostra.

In fact, the investigative process launched by the narcotics company followed the path of the previous anti-mafia investigation, which culminated in May last year with the arrest of 31 suspects belonging to the mafia family of the Brancaccio district, as well as drug trafficking (so-called Operations Tentacles).

In the articulated investigative context, carried out through interception activities and traditional observation services, the operation of an association was outlined which operated across the city and in the province, engaged daily in the search and management of multiple hashish supply sources and cocaine, also with Calabrian purchase channels, as well as a constant activity of drug sales.

In planning the roles and assignments it emerged that some of the components were active on the procurement front, while others, with more purely executive functions and even separately from each other, did their utmost in retail sales.

In fact, as the Judge for Preliminary Investigations illustrated in the body of the restrictive provision, the bond that bound some associates was analogous to that of a consortium company with a shared and temporally indeterminate criminal program with repeated and stable supplies, also in terms of exclusivity and with favorable prices.

The investigations also revealed the violent nature of some members of the criminal group, in fact during the course of the activities a violent episode that took place in Carini was reconstructed, in which a associate, pressed to collect sums of money that were urgently destined for Calabrian suppliers, met on the street a drug buyer of his as well as his debtor and, for this reason, armed with a "cazzottiera", beat him violently even in the presence of a child and 2 other associates who witnessed the attack.

During the investigations, several seizures of the narcotic substance were carried out as evidence, for a total quantity of several kilos of hashish imported from Campania and Calabria, with red-handed arrests of the couriers responsible for transporting the narcotic. 

A suspect, recipient of the restrictive measure in prison, is currently untraceable but is actively sought.

Today's operation was carried out with the collaboration of crews from the Crime Prevention Department of Palermo and the canine units of the State Police.  

Today's provision, issued by the GIP of Palermo on the basis of the investigative findings conducted by this Office and coordinated by the local Public Prosecutor's Office, is currently based on serious indications of guilt, meaning that full criminal liability for the facts indicated will be ascertained during the trial and that therefore at the moment all the suspects must be considered innocent until the final sentence. 

According to Quaestor Laricchia: "Operation Bag, the last branch of the investigative activity conducted on the mafia district of Brancaccio with operations Tentacles 1 and 2, makes it possible to disarticulate a criminal association dedicated to the trafficking and dealing of narcotic substances which supplied systematically different areas of the city and the province of large quantities of drugs. The 17 people affected by the precautionary measure worked across the districts and some of them defined themselves as "combined" with families from Borgo Vecchio and Porta Nuova. The consignments of drugs came from Campania and Calabria. Further demonstration of collaboration between families in the drug core business, as well as collaborative relationships with other criminal organizations. The conclusion of Operation Bag on the day of the 31st anniversary of the Capaci massacre takes on a particular significance for the Palermo Police Headquarters.

Palermo: operation Bag of the State Police