Castel Volturno, the Nigerian clan forced pushers to perform voodoo rites

This morning, the Carabinieri of the Company of Santa Maria Capua Vetere, assisted by the territorially competent Departments and by specialized assets of the Carabinieri, they executed an order for the application of precautionary measures, issued by the investigating judge of the Court of Santa Maria Capua Vetere, at the request of the Public Prosecutor's Office, against 13 Guests (12 in prison and 1 under house arrest), held responsible for drug dealing.

The precautionary measure is the result of a complex investigative activity directed by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Santa Maria Capua Vetere and conducted by the Police Station Carabinieri of Grazzanise between November 2020 and November 2021 which, also through technical activities, made it possible to ascertain the responsibilities, in various capacities, of the suspects in the drug dealing (1 Ghanaian, 5 Nigerians, 5 Italians, 1 Tunisian and 1 Venezuelan).

In particular - we read in a note signed by the prosecutor Pierpaolo Bruni - a drug dealing area was found in Castel Volturno managed by the African suspects who also sold to pushers from the provinces of Salerno, Teramo and Perugia, as well as in the Municipality of San Felice in Circeo. During the investigation, 6 pushers were arrested red-handed.

Carabinieri from the Teramo Mobile Radio Operations Unit, in support of the Santa Maria Capua Vetere Operations Unit in the province of Caserta, executed a pre-trial detention order against a 41-year-old woman from Teramo, a 37-year-old Tunisian national, and a 62-year-old man, the latter already under house arrest, all residents of Teramo. The three are charged with possession of narcotics with intent to distribute.

The facts refer to the anti-drug operation conducted by the Caserta Carabinieri for events that occurred in the provinces of Caserta and Teramo in 2021. The three were taken to the Castrogno prison in Teramo.

Contacts with traffickers in Malawi and a "holy man" in Nigeria

Furthermore, it emerged that some of the non-EU suspects had contacts with drug traffickers operating in Africa, particularly in Malawi, as well as with a man, a holy man, in Nigeria in order to undergo a propitiatory "voodoo" rite to ward off possible negative events in the conduct of illicit business.

This pattern has emerged repeatedly in judicial investigations, partly due to the large presence of illegal immigrants in Castel Volturno, often involved in illicit activities such as drugs and prostitution. Of the thirteen arrested, it emerged from a press conference held this morning at the Santa Maria Prosecutor's Office, attended by Prosecutor Pierpaolo Bruni and the Commander of the Carabinieri in Caserta, Manuel Scarso. Only five are Italian, arrested not in Castel Volturno but in other municipalities in the Caserta area and in the provinces of Teramo and Salerno. The others are of African origin.

The African dealers, in addition to the drugs, also provided buyers with materials for consuming them on the spot, such as aluminum foil. Overnight, the Carabinieri, while enforcing the restrictive measures issued by the Sammarinese investigating judge, conducted several searches of the buildings where the drugs were being sold, arresting two people in flagrante delicto for drug dealing and reporting two others, all non-EU citizens.

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