Nearly two kilos of drugs and cell phones seized in Poggioreale prison.

Another blow to illegal drug trafficking inside Poggioreale prison. In recent days, the Penitentiary Police seized approximately two kilograms of illicit material, including narcotics and cell phones, preventing drugs and communication devices from becoming available to inmates.

The operation confirms that attempts to introduce prohibited materials into penitentiaries are a constant and increasingly organized phenomenon, requiring constant checks and permanent surveillance by officials.

Drugs, cell phones, and new criminal strategies

According to SINAPPE, criminal organizations continue to experiment with increasingly sophisticated systems to circumvent security controls. Among the methods used are drones, conversations, and other illicit channels through which cell phones, narcotics, and other prohibited materials are smuggled into institutions.

The goal is to maintain connections with the outside world and allow inmates affiliated with the clans to continue managing trafficking and criminal relationships even while in prison.

Non-stop checks despite reduced staff and overcrowding

The seizure comes at a particularly delicate time for the penitentiary system. The Poggioreale facility, like many Italian prisons, continues to struggle with overcrowding and a chronic staff shortage.

Despite these difficulties, Penitentiary Police officers ensure round-the-clock surveillance, both day and night, with a commitment that goes far beyond ordinary surveillance activities.
Every discovery of illicit material triggers a complex judicial police effort: seizures, investigations, collection of evidence, and investigative procedures that involve numerous operators and inevitably slow down the treatment, education, work, and recreational activities aimed at the prison population.

The decisive contribution of canine units

The support of the Penitentiary Police canine units was crucial in the operation, enabling the carefully hidden material to be identified.
For the union, this is yet another demonstration of the need to invest more in technology, investigative tools, and specialized units, tools deemed essential to counter increasingly advanced smuggling techniques.

Applause for the director of the institute

SINAPPE also expressed its appreciation for the director of the Poggioreale prison, Giulia Russo, emphasizing her commitment to strengthening prison treatment and ensuring the living conditions of inmates are improved, especially during the summer.

According to the union, safety and treatment are two closely related aspects: a better organized institution that is more attentive to the individual is also a safer prison.

SINAPPE: "Every seizure is a victory for the state."

"Every seizure represents a victory for the state and a defeat for crime," declared SINAPPE national secretary Luigi Castaldo and deputy general secretary Vincenzo Santoriello.

The two union leaders emphasize that behind every operation lies the professionalism, sacrifice, and unwavering commitment of the men and women of the Penitentiary Police, while also highlighting that Campania remains short of approximately a thousand officers despite recent recruitment.

Hence the appeal to institutions to return the prison system to the center of the political agenda through new investments in personnel, technology, and security.

For the union, every seized phone cuts a link to organized crime, and every quantity of drugs removed from prison contributes to the security of institutions and the rehabilitation of inmates, reaffirming the role of the Penitentiary Police as the primary garrison of the state within prisons.