He thought he could hide the drugs in a Matryoshka doll, but he hadn't counted on the nose of Thelma, the Carabinieri's drug-sniffing dog. In Carinola , in the Caserta area, the Carabinieri of the local station, with the support of the Sarno canine units , arrested a 38-year-old man, already under house arrest for drug possession and dealing, after discovering cocaine ready for sale inside his home.
The search began at dawn, as part of a coordinated operation to combat drug dealing in the area. For several days, officers had noticed suspicious activity near the man's home, and when they decided to intervene, confirmation was forthcoming. During the search, the dog Thelma reported the presence of narcotics in the bedroom: there, inside a seemingly harmless Matryoshka doll, the Carabinieri found 14 grams of cocaine, already divided into doses, along with precision scales and packaging materials.
The seizure was immediate, and the 38-year-old was arrested again on charges of possession with intent to sell. After the usual formalities, the man was taken back to house arrest, at the disposal of the judicial authorities. An ingenious but futile hiding place: once again, the officers' intuition and the drug-sniffing dog's unerring sense of smell unmasked a dealer who thought he could get away with it even from home.
