Sondrio: “Restart 2024”, major anti-drug operation. 10 arrests and 23 search warrants

La State Police of Sondrio, as part of an investigation led by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Sondrio, has carried out 10 precautionary measures of which 6 prison detentions, 3 residence obligations and 1 obligation to report to the judicial police, as well as, 23 search warrants against individuals of Italian, Tunisian, Venezuelan and Colombian nationality, members of a criminal organization dedicated to international drug trafficking. During the latter, there were 8 more people arrested red-handed.

The investigators of Sondrio Flying Squad, following an intense investigative activity characterised by the massive use of telephone interceptions, telematics, environmental and also through a computer interceptor, they thus identified the members of the criminal group and the characteristics of the group itself.

In particular, the investigations began inAugust 2024 and have helped shed light on a criminal group rooted mainly in the Valtellina capital and fueled by the contributions of associates located in other Lombard provinces, first and foremost Milano e Varese.

I capital of this group taught from Spain the guidelines for planning the entire illegal activity, i.e. for the refueling,import, transportation, detention, preparation for the sale and, finally, the retail trade of narcotics, then dividing the proceeds of the criminal activity among all the competitors.

In fact, the illicit activity was also managed remotely and even from abroad, mainly thanks to the use of recently developed telematic applications that were difficult to intercept with ordinary technical tools.

The investigations also revealed a close connection between all the participants in the criminal action, revealing a consolidated and well-established criminal association, where each of them had a specific role and could count on the contribution of the other.

The illegal action developed predominantly in the province of Sondrio, city in which narcotic substance sales took place on a daily basis of heterogeneous nature (hashish, marijuana, cocaine), by various retailers, to the benefit of final consumers, often regular customers.

All this was also possible thanks to the strategic location of deposit of much of the narcotic, fixed in a city ​​garage located in the heart of the city and having a fictitious owner.

Here, in the basement, their operational base, the associates acted undisturbed and away from prying eyes; furthermore, the cutting, weighing, packaging and even selling of drugs took place here, in the most disparate ways and at any time of the day.

They were identified, also, the drug supply channels. Specifically, the marijuana andhashish they came from from Spain, where the identified couriers went to collect huge quantities of drugs and then imported them to Italian soil, where they finally resold them in the Lombardy region and, specifically, in Valtellina.

In light of the intense activity of selling narcotic substances, during the investigations, A total of approximately 25 kg of hashish and marijuana were seized (6,8 kg of hashish, 17 kg. of marijuana) e Approximately 324 grams of cocaine, as well as carried out 2 arrests in flagrante delicto.

The execution of precautionary measures, of the contextual searches and of a European Arrest Warrant, which required the use of approximately 90 judicial police officers belonging to the State Police, occurred simultaneously in the territories of Valtellina, In 'Milanese hinterland and in the fields of Varese e all in the province of Savona , with the collaboration of more Mobile Teams (Milano, Varese, Savona), in addition to the assistance of the Border Police of Tirano and Lombardy Crime Prevention Department.