Catania: he hid the gun under the seat of the car, 22-year-old arrested by the Carabinieri of the Radiomobile Nucleus.

The military personnel of the Catania Mobile Radio Unit, constantly engaged in crime prevention and repression activities, as well as in ensuring rapid intervention to protect public safety, have arrested a 22-year-old from Catania for illegal possession and carrying of a clandestine weapon.

The intervention, in particular, was triggered in the early hours of the morning, when a citizen contacted 112 to report a fight between some individuals, during which he had noticed that one of them, while getting on board a Fiat Panda together with two others, showed the butt of a gun under his jacket.

Following the timely report, and in relation to the sensitivity of the intervention, the Operations Centre immediately alerted all available patrols to track down the small car with the three potentially armed occupants.
After intensive searches, concentrated in the surrounding areas and up to the seafront, the suspicious car was finally identified near Piazza Nettuno.

To avoid any escape attempt and any possible reaction of the occupants, which could be dangerous for the people still present in the well-known square, all the alerted patrols were made to converge on the spot.

The choice of the Central proved to be a winning one, in fact the three individuals, at the sight of the military of the Arma, made a move to escape, but they had no escape, in fact they were immediately blocked by the Carabinieri who secured them reducing to a minimum any type of reaction.
The personal search of the subjects and of the vehicle, which allowed investigators to find under the driver's seat a 7,65 caliber pistol with the serial number erased, with one cartridge in the chamber and three others in the magazine, therefore ready for use and potentially lethal.

One of the three subjects, a 22-year-old from Catania, immediately admitted that the weapon was his and for this reason he was arrested and placed at the disposal of the Judicial Authority who validated the provision, ordering his pre-trial detention in prison.

The other two occupants of the vehicle, a 19-year-old and a 22-year-old, also from Catania, were found to be completely innocent of the presence of the weapon inside the car, but were reported to the Prefecture for possession of narcotics, together with the arrested man, since they were found in possession of some doses of marijuana, found in the pockets of their trousers during the search.