Operation “Safe Stations”: widespread checks in the railway yards in Sicily. Numerous sanctions and one seizure.

859 people checked, 216 bags inspected, 81 agents working in 71 railway stations of Sicily: these are the results achieved by the Railway Police Department for Sicily during the first day of the year dedicated to "Safe Stations“, organized at a national level by the Railway Police Service, on 17 January 2024.

The purpose of the operation, carried out under the coordination of the Polfer Operations Room, is increase the level of safety in the railway sector e counter illegal activities, in Palermo also with the assistance of the Italian Army soldiers employed, since last November, to support the control and safety devices put in place by the Railway Police.

Sicily's Polfer agents, equipped with metal detector e PDAs, and with the support of canine unit of the Police Headquarters of Palermo and Catania and of the Guardia di Finanza for the Messina station, carried out extraordinary checks in the major railway stations in the region, on trains and in the luggage storage of the central Palermo station.

In Palermo, the nose of the police dog King made it possible to identify, among the many passengers who had just got off a train, a young man in possession of a modest amount of hashish. For the administrative offence, the boy was reported to the Prefecture and the narcotic material found was seized.

7 high fines of which 5 pursuant to the Railway Police Regulations.

In particular, two people, without a ticket and without a valid justification for having entered the railway area, were sanctioned by the Polfer agents of Taormina and Catania. Two other people, in the Catania and Messina stations, were instead surprised by the officers while crossing the tracks without using the underpass, and were therefore sanctioned.

Finally, in Agrigento, contravention was raised against the owner of a flock of sheep that grazed near the railway line, so much so that some sheep were hit by a passing train.