The two complex investigations, whose epicenter was Romagna, start from a common denominator. A trend has uncovered a network of alleged corruption and commercial fraud in public administrations linked to the supply of masks to the Ausl of Romagna in the early stages of the Covid emergency (and remanded as a prominent figure). , in former deputy Gianluca Pini). But the Forlì Police Headquarters, headed by Quaestor Lucio Aprile, has also worked tirelessly on it The second and no less important trend is the international drug trade who regarded the city as one of the trading centers.
For this affair, the transport and logistics entrepreneur ended up in prison in Forlì Gianluca Fiore, 46 years oldin turn, investigations were also carried out in the other direction attributable to Pini, since the public prosecutor believed that there was a genuine relationship of trust between the two, which would have been strengthened by mutual financial interests (however, Pini cannot be linked). way still investigated on drug problems).
Overall, the investigative activity documented 36 incidents of cross-border imports of cocaine and hashish between March 2020 and June 2021 with a total weight of over one tonne of cocaine and one tonne of hashish with a turnover of over one billion euros. All investigative activity took place early Thursday morning in Italy, Germany, Holland and Belgium in the presence of Europol and Eurojust staff, 640 police officers were on duty, 35 were arrested and 51 house searches were carried out.
Almost three years of investigation into this drug trafficking investigation. In particular, in the early hours of yesterday Thursday, as part of the investigation coordinated by the Bologna Public Prosecutor’s Office – District Antimafia Directorate – the State Police issued 27 pre-trial detention orders against people residing in Italy and all abroad. The operation, carried out jointly by police forces and judicial authorities from six European Union member countries, “dismantled several criminal networks, composed mainly of people of Albanian origin, responsible for the importation and distribution of dozens of quintals of cocaine on the continent.” “For years we have used companies in the road transport sector that also operate in Romagna,” says a police statement.
The operations are carried out on national territory by the mobile units of Forli-Cesena (led by Enzo Tarquini in Forlì) and Modena. A total of 130 state police officers were deployed to arrest the 27 suspects. Various mobile task forces are supporting crime prevention departments and anti-drug canine units in the provinces where the suspects live. In addition, in the province of Modena, the investigation identified another group, also of Albanian origin, not directly related to the suspects affected by the precautionary measures and arrested in the act in March 2021: composed of 5 people and owned of a total of 11.5 kilos of cocaine, 37 kilos of hashish and the cash sum of 160,000 euros.
In Ravenna in particular, a turning point occurred that certifies the existence of a link between two criminal groups, notably the seizure of more than 40 kilos of cocaine by the Forlì Mobile Squad in December 2020 in Ravenna and the subsequent arrest of the two at the corresponding importation involved couriers; The latter was planned and carried out by the two associations mentioned above: the one from Modena acted as buyer and recipient of the shipment, while the one from Romagna was called to take care of the physical collection, transport and delivery of the shipment.
“Complex Investigation”
It was, explains Francesco Messina, the Central Crime Control Director of the State Police, “a complex investigation that lasted almost three years and was carried out in different parts of the national territory and also abroad, leading to the seizure of large quantities”. Drug trafficking by transnational organizations, which could be prosecuted thanks to the cooperation of the various police and judicial authorities involved. The evaluation and analysis of the encrypted communication, which the suspects used massively for international drug trafficking, was a decisive factor. According to the Central Crime Control Directorate of the State Police, it is important to remember the quantities of drugs seized (about 120 kilos of cocaine and 20 kilos of cannabis), as well as the confiscations of goods and money, which totaled more than one million euros.” .
The beginning of the investigations in Forlì
The investigations were carried out by the Central Operations Service of the Central Anti-Crime Directorate of the State Police and by the Mobile Task Force of the Forlì and Modena Police Headquarters, who, after being monitored by a businessman from Forlì, Gianluca Fiore, reconstructed an extensive and ramified network of cocaine and hashish dealers who would have been able to import quintals of drugs from Belgium and Spain using specially modified vehicles and then distribute them to intermediate suppliers based in northern and central Italy. The investigations revealed that the Italian citizen had done business with two Albanian partners to transport large quantities of cocaine to Europe via a logistics company from Forlì.
In response to the hypothesis, on August 19, 2020, the Forlì Mobile Squad had seized a shipment of 28 kilos of cocaine in Aosta and then arrested two couriers, two brothers from Cesena. “Subsequent investigations made it possible to document the stable presence of at least two criminal organizations with the aim of international drug trafficking in Emilia-Romagna: one in the province of Modena and the other between the provinces of Forlì-Cesena and Rimini, which are linked and hierarchically structured in that they have a large number of men, weapons, money, means of transport and, above all, logistical bases at their disposal,” the police statement continued. In the province of Forlì-Cesena and Rimini there is a stable presence of companies in the logistics sector that have been transporting medicines from Northern Europe for years.
On the investigative and executive side, Mobile Command Forli-Cesena, with the help of local mobile teams, operated in the provinces of Rimini, Frosinone, Teramo, Ravenna and Bari, capturing 10 people, plus 1 arrest in the Netherlands and 1 in Germany, except for 5 People who are still wanted because they are not in Germany. One of those arrested was stopped by the Bari Flying Squad on a ship returning from Albania. Numerous luxury goods (cars and valuables) as well as 17,000 euros in cash and 150 grams of cocaine were found and confiscated as part of the executive activity.
Office in Modena
In the province of Modena, the presence of 10 of the 27 suspects was detected, making it possible to document the trafficking of about 320 kilos of cocaine and the one-off exchange of 1 million and 300,000 euros for imports from Belgium A quantity of 43 kilos of cocaine was then how confiscated as described below. The arrests also took place in the provinces of Genoa, Bologna, Alessandria, Salerno and Lodi, also thanks to the help of the staff of the crime prevention department and the anti-drug canine units.
Of particular interest is the arrest of a Genoa-based recipient of the precautionary measure, identified on a train near Salerno station returning from Calabria. The contextual searches in the above provinces seized cash worth 30,000 euros, mobile phones and drug packaging material. Of the 10 people, manhunts are still ongoing to arrest 3 Albanian citizens who are not on national territory.