Naples, cell phone blackout in Secondigliano: 24 attempts blocked in 24 hours.

Naples – Twenty-four thousand attempted calls or data transmissions were intercepted and blocked in a single afternoon. This was the result of the first day of testing the new telecommunications jamming system installed at the Secondigliano prison in Naples. A veritable "technological blackout" designed to sever illegal contact between inside and outside the prison.

The data were released by Undersecretary of Justice Alberto Balboni during a press conference at the Government Palace in Naples, attended by Prefect Michele di Bari, Head of the Department of Penitentiary Administration (DAP) Stefano Carmine De Michele, and General Director of the Penitentiary Police Augusto Zaccariello.

Chain attempts and quadrupled ordinary calls

The extraordinary numbers recorded in the first twenty-four hours of testing do not indicate a presence of phones exceeding the capacity of the structure, but they do testify to the obstinacy with which the devices were used in an attempt to bypass the shielding.

"There aren't 24,000 inmates in Secondigliano; there are about 1.500 in total," Undersecretary Balboni clarified. "It's clear that if a single inmate tries to log in 100 times in a row, that number quickly reaches that number."

As evidence of the immediate effectiveness of the radio blockade, the Ministry of Justice has recorded a surge in official requests: yesterday alone, requests from inmates to make authorized phone calls quadrupled the average.

Maximum alert and internal security

The launch of the operation required an impressive security framework, with the extraordinary deployment of 250 Penitentiary Police officers to prevent any potential disturbances within the facility.

"There was a real risk of protests from the prison population," Balboni explained, "because we are depriving them of a crucial communication tool, used in particular by the leaders of criminal organizations and those with a high propensity for crime." Despite the tension and the impact of the measure, the day ended without incident or disturbances.

How shielding works

The technical complexity of the project stems from the need to block unauthorized signals without paralyzing the network for the facility's operational needs. The system allows the exclusive use of cell phones issued to authorized personnel through a "white list" of numbers authorized to bypass the frequency barrier, thus ensuring service continuity and operator safety.