Riposto: Operation Caronte. 10 people, including 2 minors, arrested by the Carabinieri for drug dealing

On behalf of the District Attorney's Office of Catania - District Anti-Mafia Directorate - and the Public Prosecutor's Office at the Juvenile Court, the military personnel of the Provincial Command Catania Carabinieri, with the support in the executive phase of the military personnel of the Helicopter Squadron "Sicilia", of the Dog Unit of Nicolosi (CT) and of the First Response Units of the Radiomobile Unit of Catania, have carried out the implementing ordinances of the measures of the pre-trial detention in prison and community placement issued by the Preliminary Investigation Judges at the Ordinary Court and at the Juvenile Court of Catania against, overall, 10 Guests (8 adults and 2 minors) against whom serious evidence of guilt has been ascertained in relation to the crimes of criminal association for the purpose of drug trafficking, purchase, possession for the purpose of dealing and transfer of narcotic substances and fraudulent transfer of valuables.

THEoperation, called “Charon”, allowed to dismantle a criminal association that allegedly ran a "drug dealing square", set up in a popular building of Ripon, which would have guaranteed an important source of income for organised crime.

The investigation activity, conducted by the Carabinieri of the station Ripon, under the coordination of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate, originates from the complaint filed by a habitual buyer of the suspects, who turned to the military after having been violently beaten, including with sticks, following an argument over where he was supposed to park the electric bicycle he used to travel to the area to purchase the drugs he was taking.

Following the complaint, the military personnel of the Riposto Carabinieri Station – who had previously already arrested some of the suspects for drug-related crimes – They have intensified checks in the public housing complex on Via Gaetano de Maio where several suspects live.

It would thus have emerged that Privitera Ivan, although subjected to the precautionary measure of arrest for the crime referred to in art. 73 of Presidential Decree 309/90, he would have organized a real drug market, receiving at the door, even at night, buyers who went there to purchase all the most common types of narcotic substances (marijuana, cocaine, crack and hashish).

The investigations would have highlighted that This drug dealing center would have been operational 24 hours a day, located in the public housing complex indicated above.

At the head of the same there would be Privitera Ivan, promoter of the association, which would have been supported in his illicit activity from his cohabiting family members: her mother Giovanna, her stepbrother Sebastiano, her stepsister Marika Ornella and her mother's partner, Zammataro Antonio.

Faced with the intensification of controls, which had led to the first seizures of narcotic substances from users and, then, on 15 February 2024, to thearrest of Zammataro Antonio and again, on July 20, 2024, to that by Privitera Ivan, the association would not have ceased its illicit activity, but, with persistence, he would have resorted to a better organization to evade the activity of contrast and control of the Judicial Police, installing high definition cameras at the corners of the building in via de Maio to spot in real time the possible presence of the police forces, positioning lookouts and using home deliveries in the municipalities of Riposto, Giarre and Mascali, sometimes reaching as far as Calatabiano and Giardini Naxos.

Through the interception activity and other surveillance investigative systems, serious and multiple elements of circumstantial evidence emerged regarding the existence and operation of the criminal association aimed at the illicit trafficking of narcotics contested in the precautionary order.

Furthermore, the investigations revealed that the defendants resorted to violent conduct against competitors who had decided to independently undertake drug dealing activities in the area under their control.

During the technical activity the Carabinieri confirmed the content of the intercepted conversations, drawing conclusions arrest also 3 drug dealers caught in the act, deferring another 3 to freedom, recovering over 15.000 euros cash, seizing total 33 grams of crack, 133 grams of cocaine and 473 grams of marijuana.

Il turnover of the association has been estimated at around 500 euros per day, for approximately 15.000 euro monthly.

As regards the position of the two minors, from the outcome of the investigation activities, it would have emerged at the level of circumstantial gravity that they would have been participants in the criminal activity, dealing with the home delivery and support to the group for operations supplying, being paid up to 20 euros for a single delivery.

The order of the GIP of Catania also ordered the preventive seizure of the cash sum of €15.571,00 – seized in February 2024 from unknown persons during a raid by the Carabinieri of the Riposto CC Station – and ofmotor car, Alfa Romeo Steivio, available to the suspects, since it was believed to have been purchased with the proceeds of the criminal activity, fictitiously registered by Privitera Ivan, a criminal, to his half-sister Nicolosi Ornella Marika in order to evade the provisions of the law regarding patrimonial prevention measures.

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