A cigarette smuggling axis between Naples and Palermo has been discovered: 15 people have ended up in handcuffs, while 19 are under investigation for having illegally received citizen's income.
Contents
The Palermo Guardia di Finanza has executed fifteen precautionary measures against members of a criminal organization that smuggled cigarettes between Naples and Palermo. The group's financial police, led by Colonel Alessandro Coscarelli and coordinated by Deputy Prosecutor Giorgia Spiri, discovered a gang that, from November 2019 to May 2020, managed to get five and a half tons of "blondes" to Palermo. All of them were well-known brands without the stamps of the state monopoly. The military's investigations allowed them to document 78 return trips between Palermo and Naples. Three suspects ended up in prison because they were considered the leaders of the gang, seven others were notified of the measure of house arrest, while five have the obligation to report to the judicial police. Five of the suspects are from Naples and 10 from Palermo. During the investigation, three other people were arrested red-handed while transporting the cigarettes and 28 are under investigation.
The recipients of the precautionary custody order in prison are the Palermo citizens BG (class of '88) and CP (class of '66), leaders and promoters of the criminal organization. For DGG (class of '87), driver on behalf of the shipping company, FG (class of '82), GG (class of '85) and GA (class of '70), the first two couriers and the latter buyer of tle, house arrest was triggered. Finally, against DSG (class of '66), BM (class of '88), DPG (class of '76) and DPM (class of '57), wholesale buyers of tle, the precautionary measure of the obligation to report to the Judicial Police was applied.
In Naples, the precautionary measure in prison was carried out against AC (class of '73), as the leader and promoter of the organization with the task of procuring the tle in Naples and shipping to Palermo. The associates in charge of the shipments were placed under house arrest: AA (class of '96), BM (class of '75), CG (class of '60) and for VP (class of '69) the obligation to report to the Judicial Police.
13 other people are also under investigation, for a total of 28 subjects involved. Of these, 19 are recipients of Citizenship Income.
YOU MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN: Ambush on Nigerians for 'Stealing' Drugs: 5 of Soraniello Clan Arrested
The crimes contested under various titles are criminal association aimed at cigarette smuggling and drug trafficking. In one shipment the financial police found a kilo of hashish. The investigating judge of Palermo also ordered the seizure of two warehouses in the area of Corso dei Mille-Brancaccio where the group stored the cartons of cigarettes that were then sold by illegal street vendors in the Palermo neighborhoods of Zen, Bonagia, Brancaccio, Borgo Nuovo and in the seaside villages of Arenella, Acquasanta and Vergine Maria. A tobacco trafficking that in seven months produced a turnover of 2,4 million euros.
FOR TRANSPORT THEY USED RENTAL CARS
The organization for the trips between Naples and Palermo used rented cars. The cars were loaded in Palermo onto the ferry to the Campania capital. The return trip was by land, on the highway. Then the “blondes” ended up on the stalls at very competitive prices: 27 euros a carton compared to 50 euros on sale in tobacconists. A very thriving market that continued even during the pandemic. Only that travel by car had become very dangerous and difficult and so the organization used a courier for the shipments. A company that, unaware of the traffic, had the cigarettes delivered to Palermo. The men of the gang showed up at the warehouse where they were stored and took away the packages with the goods.
Specifically, two individuals from Palermo (CP and BG), at the head of the criminal group, allegedly managed in Palermo the flows of contraband cigarettes purchased in Campania (from AC) and then hidden in a rented property in the Corso dei Mille area. The group allegedly obtained supplies of contraband foreign-processed tobacco procured in Naples through targeted transfers carried out by individuals belonging to the organization with courier/relay duties using rented cars, traveling outward by ship and returning to Palermo by land.
In a later phase, coinciding with the beginning of the restrictions on travel caused by the COVID-19 virus, the criminal group allegedly implemented a rather innovative and insidious method. Specifically, the cigarettes were allegedly sent to Palermo using a shipping company, unaware of the illicit traffic, indicating purely fictitious names and addresses as senders and recipients, and communicating the relative shipping numbers to a trusted man. The latter, a driver operating on behalf of the shipping company (DGG), currently under house arrest, collected and delivered the packages containing the tle directly to the storage warehouse.
On one occasion, 1 kg of hashish was also seized, thus confirming that the criminal association's illicit activity had also extended to drug trafficking, evidently also due to the difficulties of retail street sales of cigarettes during the epidemiological period.
During the investigations, approximately 700 kg of TLE were seized and 3 individuals were arrested in flagrante delicto.
Furthermore, the Finance Police reconstructed that – despite the limitations imposed on travel due to the ongoing COVID-19 health emergency – in just 7 months (November 2019/May 2020), over 5 tons of cigarettes were transported from Naples to Palermo.
The purchase price in the Neapolitan square would have been 22 euros per carton (less than half of the over-the-counter cigarettes), subsequently sold in the capital Palermo wholesale at 27 euros and at retail for small sales at 35 euros, for a total turnover of over 2,4 million euros.
The loads of tle, once they arrived in the capital city of Palermo, would have been sold or transferred for subsequent retail sale mainly in the areas of Oreto- Stazione, Settecannoli, Borgo Vecchio, Brancaccio and Zen.
The service activity is part of the constant action of contrasting the phenomena of cigarette smuggling and drug trafficking, sources of wealth for organized crime, operated by the Guardia di Finanza both on an investigative level and in the context of daily economic control of the territory.
In the period 1 January 2020 – 31 March 2021, the Departments dependent on the Provincial Command of Palermo operated:
regarding foreign manufactured tobacco, the seizure of over 3.500 kg of tobacco, with the reporting to the AG of 82 individuals, 15 of whom are under arrest;
with regards to the fight against drug trafficking and dealing, the seizure of over 80 kg of hashish, marijuana and cocaine, with the reporting to the AG of 90 individuals, of whom 20 were arrested, and 188 were administratively reported to the competent Prefectural Authorities.
Article published on 26 April 2021 - 08:51
Video Chronicles
