Brenner: The driver of a semi-trailer truck was arrested. 1,2 kg of cocaine was seized, hidden in a false bottom of the trailer.

La State Police arrested the driver of a truck checked at the Brenner Pass, inside which they were found and seized 1,2kg of cocaine.

The intervention is part of the services provided by the Bolzano Police Headquarters, aimed at contrasting the international drug trafficking andclandestine immigration.

Last November 13, a patrol of the Brenner Public Safety Commissioner stopped a truck coming from Austria, equipped with refrigerated semi-trailer.

Since the first checks, the officers have detected obvious anomalies: the refrigerated semi-trailer was transporting appliances and not perishable material; tachograph reported times and stops that differed from those declared by the driver; furthermore, the transport documents showed that the vehicle had departed fromNetherlands.

Suspicious of these elements, the patrol requested the intervention of the operators of the Anti-Drug Section of the Flying Squad of the Bolzano Police Headquarters.

The investigators, having arrived on the scene, immediately noticed the evident nervousness of the driver and ascertained that the writings on the truck belonged to a company external to the real owner of the vehicle.

Un thorough inspection allowed the police to identify some abnormal welds under the trailer, compatible with the presence of a double bottom specially made to conceal drugs.

The detail betrayed the driver: after removing some covers, the officers identified a stick of cocaine, immediately seized.

The analyses highlighted a 85% active ingredient, from which it would have been possible to derive approximately 5.700 doses.

According to the investigative reconstruction, such a high level of purity would have allowed a notable economic return, also thanks to the possibility of carrying out two further "cuts" of the substance.

The value of the seized drugs, if intended for retail sale, is estimated between the 80.000 and the 100.000 euro; with a double cut, the value could have triple.

La cocaine and the entire semi-trailer were seized, while the driver was transferred to prison, available to the judicial authority.