Gang feud in Sicily: 3 young men kidnapped for a drug debt, revenge for the theft of 4 kg of Hashish worth 15.000 Euros. The gang of kidnappers from Syracuse arrested
There are 9 arrests for the crime of kidnapping of three young people that occurred in Scicli last summer. The motive would be revenge for the theft of 4 kg of Hashish worth 15.000 Euro that occurred in Modica the day before the kidnapping of the three young people that would have had the purpose of recovering the stolen sum.
Gang feud in Sicily: 3 young men kidnapped for a drug debt, revenge for the theft of 4 kg of Hashish worth 15.000 Euros. The gang of kidnappers from Syracuse arrested
At the request of the competent Public Prosecutor's Offices at the ordinary court (district anti-mafia directorate) and at the Juvenile Court of Catania, who coordinated the investigations, in the early hours of this morning, the Carabinieri of the Operational and Radiomobile Nucleus of the Modica Company – supported by the Investigative Departments of the Provincial Commands of Ragusa and Siracusa, who contributed to the conduct of the investigations – have given execution of two separate restrictive measures issued by the GIP of Catania (both at the ordinary court and at the juvenile court) against individuals originating and gravitating in the Syracuse area who - without prejudice to the presumption of innocence - were considered seriously suspected, with the roles of instigators, executors and jailers, of the kidnappings of 3 young people which took place, in different phases, in Scicli on 20 June last year and which caused deep alarm in the city.
To free one of the hostages, as soon as he was located the following day, it was necessary to use the Special Intervention Group (GIS) of the Carabinieri, so as to avoid possible reactions and further consequences to the detriment of the kidnapped young man. The operation ended with the arrest in flagrante of one of the guards and the seizure of a gun, which the jailer was in possession of.
Under the direction of the Catania Judicial Authority, the Operational Unit of the Modica Company continued the investigations into the serious crime committed with the active contribution of the Carabinieri of Syracuse.
The investigations would therefore have allowed to reconstruct the motive for the kidnapping of the young man, which was believed to have consisted in a retaliation for the theft of 4 kilos of hashish, worth approximately 15 thousand euros, which took place in Modica on 19 June 2024 to the detriment of some of those arrested today, already suppliers of other batches of drugs to young local dealers. The kidnapping would therefore have had the aim of recovering the sum of money paid for the drugs, a condition for the release of the kidnapped person.
The commando, according to the prosecution's reconstruction – to be verified in the continuation of the proceedings – a group of eight Syracusans armed with pistols, arrived in Scicli to track down those who had taken possession of the drugs, blocking for a few hours and savagely beating, with the threat of weapons, two young people from Scicli, one of whom was a minor, before releasing them; immediately afterwards, in the Jungi district of Scicli, the commando kidnapped the young man they were looking for who, still under armed threat, was violently loaded aboard one of their cars and transported to Syracuse. In an attempt to defend the young man from his attackers, a cousin of the kidnapped was hit in the leg by a gunshot. The hostage was also wounded in the shoulder during the journey with a gunshot, while trying to jump out of the moving car. In Syracuse he was then locked up in an apartment in via Privitera, in the popular district of Santa Lucia, used as a den for drug dealing.
The investigations, whose results have been validated by the judges so far, would also have allowed to outline the dynamics of the group that was dedicated to drug dealing. The investigative results obtained so far - susceptible to further validation in the jurisdiction - were reached through the acquisition of information gathered from witnesses, the analysis of data acquired on the basis of the screening of video surveillance images present on the premises.
Those arrested were taken to the Ragusa County Jail and the Catania-Bicocca Juvenile Detention Center.
Reproduction reserved © Copyright La Milano