Piedimonte Etneo: 49-year-old arrested and 45-year-old accomplice reported for cultivation of narcotics.

The extraordinary checks of the territory for the prevention and repression of drug crimes, promoted by the Provincial Command of the Carabinieri of Catania, continue without stopping, carried out with the support of the Helicopter Squadron of the Carabinieri Cacciatori of "Sicilia", a precious ally of the local force.

In this context, the military personnel of the Randazzo Company, together with their colleagues from the local Station and in collaboration with the units of the Helicopter Squadron, arrested a 49-year-old from Piedimonte Etneo and reported a 45-year-old fellow citizen of his, both accused of joint cultivation of narcotic substances.
In particular, following a complex information-investigative activity, the Carabinieri of the Operational Unit decided to check the home of the 49-year-old, resident in a peripheral area of ​​the town, already known to them for previous judicial cases connected to drugs.

The soldiers, therefore, reached his house and began a search.
As soon as they entered the apartment, the Carabinieri perceived the strong smell of marijuana, typically acrid, and in fact, inside a piece of furniture in the dining room, they found a few grams of hashish and marijuana.
During the operations, which also extended to the courtyard, it did not escape the expert eye of the military that the fence between the property and a neighboring vineyard was bent, as if someone was frequently climbing over it.

Therefore, the inspection of the vineyard was also immediate, during which the Carabinieri discovered a real cultivation of cannabis indica composed from 15 fully developed plants, between 50 and 160 cm tall, from which over 800 doses of the narcotic substance could have been obtained.

In addition, near the plantation, the Carabinieri recovered some empty bottles of methadone, on which were still stuck the labels with the name and surname of the user of the drug, namely a 45-year-old local man, also already known to the Carabinieri because he was recently arrested for dealing and resisting a public official. This discovery allowed the military to understand how the two were "in business", and had set up together the cultivation of cannabis plants which, moreover, contained a very high active ingredient (tetrahydrocannabinol), as later ascertained by the toxicological tests conducted on the samples taken.

At the end of the operation, all the drugs were seized and the 49-year-old owner of the building was arrested for cultivation of narcotic substances, while the 45-year-old was reported for complicity in illicit cultivation.
The arrested person, placed at the disposal of the Judicial Authority which validated his arrest, was then subjected to the precautionary measure of the obligation to report to the Judicial Police.

This latest result is part of a broader activity of prevention and contrast to the production of narcotics in the Etna area, because already in the first days of September, in Contrada Canne di Castiglione di Sicilia, two other plantations had been discovered, one with over 60 plants, for which a 50-year-old local man was arrested, and one with 18 cannabis indica plants, grown in plastic pots and in an advanced vegetative state.

Real open-air “marijuana nurseries”, with plants up to 2 metres tall, which could have produced over 1500 doses of the drug.
These operations demonstrate the effectiveness of the constant territorial control activity carried out by the Carabinieri of Catania, in collaboration with specialized units.
The daily commitment and widespread presence of the Carabinieri on the territory, in fact, allow not only to effectively combat the trafficking and illicit production of narcotics, but also to prevent and repress criminal phenomena that threaten the safety of the community.