The Rieti State Police, coordinated by the Central Operational Service, at the request of the investigating judge of the Rieti Court, at the request of the Prosecutor's Office, arrested 20 Nigerian citizens and one Cameroonian citizen for the possession and sale of narcotic substances.
The operation, called "Angelo Nero", a nickname attributed by drug addicts to one of the main drug dealers, took place in various Italian provinces and involved the agents of the Rieti Mobile Squad with the collaboration of the Mobile Teams of Venice, Caserta, L 'Aquila, Agrigento, Campobasso and with the help of the Crime Prevention Departments and the Anti-Drug Dog Units of the State Police.
In the Rieti capital, where the policemen of the Mobile Squads of Rome, Perugia, Terni, Viterbo, Ascoli, Teramo and Latina were also employed, numerous searches were carried out and some commercial businesses were seized, managed by the drug dealers and used to hide and peddle drug.
Prison detention was ordered for 14 men, two of whom were already in prison, and two women, while house arrest was ordered for the others. In addition, two Nigerians are actively sought after escaping arrest.
The investigation stems from a seizure of a few doses of narcotic drugs carried out in October 2018 after an observation and stalking activity by an addict of drugs. In the circumstance, the police had verified that the drug addict contacted a cell phone number stored with the name of Angelo Nero 2 and that in the previous days he had contacted the same user at least once a day, evidently to obtain drugs.
The complex investigative activity allowed to discover the relationships between the drug dealers, residing in Rieti, and their customers. Numerous telephone users were intercepted and observation services were carried out, also with video cameras, and stalking with localization systems.
With this operation, the State Police neutralized the main group of drug dealers in the Rieti capital which managed to place on the market every month about 300 doses of cocaine, over 1000 doses of heroin and over 10 thousand doses of marijuana, the latter destined in large part to young people, even minors.
The group was able to earn about 50 thousand euros per month and in addition to supplying consumers with drugs of the Rieti capital, it also sold the drug pusher from the municipalities of the province and from nearby Abruzzo.
The subjects sent the drug to the Rieti capital via couriers, most of whom traveled on the Rome - Rieti buses, among them also young Nigerians, paid for one or more trips, who hid the substance in walking bags, bags of the shopping, or among the clothes worn. Part of the marijuana, cocaine and heroin was instead purchased and collected directly in the drug squares of Rome, Venice and Castel Volturno (CE).
To order or transport the quantities of drugs, jargon words were used to indicate the type and quantity of the substance, such as level, long or short pants (marijuana), cigar (hashish), white, milk, white shoe (cocaine), meat, shoe black (heroine).