Pescara: a custody order was executed against two minors for the crimes of extortion and stalking

On the morning of February 7, the Pescara State Police executed the order for the precautionary custody of two 17-year-old foreigners, issued by the GIP of L'Aquila, for the crimes of extortion and stalking.

The request for the measure had been made by the Juvenile Prosecutor's Office of L'Aquila, in light of the investigative elements represented by the Pescara Flying Squad, which had dealt with a series of criminal episodes that occurred last August in the central areas of this capital city, managing to identify a group of young North African foreigners who used to hang around the station and the beach resorts, especially in the evening and at night, taking advantage of the large crowds to commit predatory crimes or even simply to harass unsuspecting unfortunate people, making use of the group's strength and, sometimes, even armed with clubs and knives.

In particular, towards one of the victims, the group had committed a real extortion, snatching the phone from her hand and demanding payment for its return; towards the same boy, the harassing conduct, consisting mostly of beatings and threats aggravated by the use of instruments suitable for offending, were repeated several times, to the point of generating a serious state of anxiety in the unfortunate victim and therefore also configuring the crime of stalking.

It is precisely these crimes of extortion and stalking that were contested to the seventeen-year-olds arrested last February 7, 2025, who they would have acted in a group together with the other adults, 6 of whom had also been placed in pre-trial detention in prison last November, when the GIP and the Pescara Public Prosecutor's Office had identified the latter were charged with a criminal association "aimed at committing multiple crimes of private violence, aggravated threats, beatings, extortion... through raids in the city centre at night and harassment of occasional passers-by".

The minors were tracked down by personnel from the Pescara and Rome Mobile Squads in two communities located in the province of Rome and were taken to a juvenile penitentiary.