Italy – Operation “Hermanos,” rivers of drugs in the Northeast.
Maxi operation against the illicit trafficking of large quantities of drugs Eighteen personal precautionary measures have been executed by the police against individuals also residing and staying in the province of Padua, Milan and Brescia.
Following investigations directed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Padua, State Police personnel from the Padua Police Headquarters (Mobile Squad), assisted by crews from the “Veneto” Crime Prevention Unit and personnel from the mobile squads of Udine, Rimini, Trieste, Gorizia, and Milan, and from the police stations of P.S. of Jesolo and Tolmezzo, executed an order enforcing 18 personal precautionary measures (3 of pre-trial detention in prison, 2 of house arrest and 13 of mandatory residence with prescriptions) ordered by the Judge.
For Preliminary Investigations of the Court of Padova against subjects of Italian and foreign nationality, residing and dwelling in the province of Padua (in the capital and in the municipalities of Abano Terme, Rubano, Albignasego, and Selvazzano Dentro), Udine, Rimini, Venice, Trieste, Gorizia, and Milan, seriously suspected for various reasons of illicit trafficking in large quantities of cocaine, hashish, and marijuana (109 kilos in all the quantities ascertained, of which 47 were seized-drugs that would have yielded about 7 million euros on the market).
Three of the suspects are also charged with attempted murder and illegal carrying of firearms, in connection with a shooting in Ibiza-Spain in June 2021, in which a chef from Naples was seriously injured. Also carried out 24 house searches against the same subjects and other co-defendants, in the same provinces and those of Turin, Verona and Brescia.
The investigation
The precautionary order, which originated from the investigative activity carried out by the Mobile Squad of the Padua Police Headquarters, allowed to outline a solid and exhaustive circumstantial framework against a group of subjects with stable links to local and international drug trafficking, demonstrating contiguity to subjects believed to be intrested in an organized criminal context, as well as the possibility of having an established clientele in northeastern Italy to whom they could sell large quantities of cocaine and marijuana.
The investigation initially centered around the figures of two 33-year-old Italian men (one from Abano Terme, the other from Tarvisio-Ud, today’s recipients of precautionary measures in prison), both already convicted in the past for similar facts, of whom a series of conversations were intercepted in January 2021 concerning the negotiation of 1 kg of cocaine that they were to conclude with a subject from Padova.
Business and dealing
As the prospect of doing business with the latter faded, due to the unavailability of the narcotic in his head, the two took to intensifying their contacts with a 42-year-old man from Fiesso d’Artico (Ve), owner of a company in Limena (Pd). The latter (who was arrested in the course of the investigation and is currently under a custodial measures in prison) said he was able to cope with the support of “others” for the requested supply, repeatedly mentioning a subject of Albanian nationality (“the ALBA”), later identified by the police in a 38-year-old Albanian living in Rubano (Pd) (also today recipient of custodial detention in prison).
In preparation for the first purchase, the two 33-year-olds set out to find a trusted courier who would be responsible for transporting at least part of the load. The latter (a 21-year-old Romanian from Besenello-TN) was in the circumstance stopped by police officers on board his car on the A22 Brenner freeway section of the Brenner Pass, on his way back from Padua, and arrested with half a kilogram of cocaine in stone stowed under the seat (it was April 2021).
The other part of the purchased load was instead transported by a 52-year-old from Padua (himself a trusted courier of the 42-year-old from Fiesso d’Artico and the Albanian from Rubano) to a garage in Artegna (Ud), traceable to a 47-year-old from Osoppo (Ud) habitual custodian of the narcotics and proceeds related to the illicit activity on behalf of the accomplice from Tarvisio (both courier and custodian are recipients of a residence obligation with a prescription not to go out during evening-night hours).
Numerous meetings aimed at illicit trafficking were monitored by the investigators of the Padua Mobile Squad, both at the company in Limena and at a Bar not far from it. Eavesdropping made it possible from time to time to follow the suspects in the activities preparatory to the organization of the transport and then to identify the place where the drugs could be deposited.
An increasingly widespread activity
In the weeks that followed, drug transfers were multiplying, and not only in northern Italy. On May 16, 2021, the 51-year-old Padua man, who had already been responsible for transporting at least half a kilogram of cocaine to the workshop in Artegna (Ud), was checked by police officers from the Padua Police Headquarters at the exit of the Padua South tollbooth and found in possession of 30,000,000 euros, divided into bundles of 10,000 euros. Money that was seized from him. The capturing activity made it possible to link this sum to a transaction related to the sale of about 3 kilos of cocaine concluded also in this case on behalf of the 42-year-old from Fiesso d’Artico and the Albanian from Rubano in favor, however, of subjects residing in the Brindisi area.
The cops would get the match a few months later in the contents of an accounting ledger seized from the 42-year-old himself at the time of his arrest. Among the various entries in it was one concerning precisely the sale of 3 kilograms at a price of 32,000 euros (per kilogram). On the same manuscript was repeatedly given the “nickname” associated with the Padua courier, with associated various figures corresponding to the various fees for the transports he had already carried out. The seized accounts, within the scope of which was also included the far from modest quantity sold in those weeks, showed quantities of narcotics around 36 kilos.
Regarding the supply channel, in mid-July, thanks to the technical services activated, the Mobile Squad investigators noted the arrival near the Limena company of a heavy vehicle, whose entry into Italy they later verified just the previous morning, through the port of Brindisi. On that occasion the purchase, transport and contextual payment of at least 10 kilograms of cocaine was documented, for which the 42-year-old from Fiesso d’Artico personally provided.
It was he, on the other hand, in agreement with his Albanian accomplice and on the latter’s indications and mediations, who also in the following weeks met with citizens of Albanian nationality who came specifically to Limena from Milan to make drug deliveries (equipping the vehicles with mechanisms for opening compartments set up for the concealment of drugs and money) and to receive in delivery the large sums of money proceeds from the sales.
Among them was a 49-year-old Albanian from Milan (also a recipient of a residence obligation with a prescription not to go out in the evening-night hours), who in late December 2021 arranged for the supply of 5 kilos of cocaine (marked “KTM”), later found and seized by police officers in a garage in Via Bellini, where they had been secured.
Another Albanian citizen, 38, domiciled in Selvazzano Dentro (PD), on the other hand, joined the Padova suspects by purchasing various narcotics from them and then disposing of them in the province. Moreover, he was identified by his pseudonym in the seized accounts (the sales in his favor amounted to at least 72,000 euros).
“We’re going to make a bang!”: the wiretaps
But giving the measure of the volumes of drug trafficking the suspects were capable of were some intercepted conversations related to an operation to be closed by 2021, and which would allow them to make a “big bang!” The 42-year-old man from Fiesso d’Artico and his 38-year-old Albanian partner from Rubano were comparing notes on the possible successful purchase of 100 kilograms of cocaine, for which they had long since begun negotiations with suppliers in Central America (going there in person) and which, in the event of positive developments, would be brought to the port of Antwerp, Belgium, and then to Italy
Meanwhile, other lucrative transactions were being completed. In October 2021, the Mobile Squad acquired significant elements related to the shipment from Rimini to Padua of other significant quantities of narcotics. The cops learned that a 45-year-old accomplice, originally from Salerno, but from Ibiza (hosted by the 42-year-old from Fiesso d’Artico at his home), and his collaborator, a 34-year-old from the province of Rimini (both recipients today of the measure of compulsory residence with a prescription not to go out during evening-night hours), had organized the shipment by courier of a package containing narcotics. Due to a tip from the carrier, however, the “package” was stopped, the narcotic substance (marijuana) seized, and the recipient referred to the judicial authority.
In those very days, several dialogues were intercepted between the 45-year-old man from Salerno (who had just arrived in Italy and was picked up at the Treviso airport) and the 42-year-old man from Fiesso d’Artico, from which it was clear that they were involved in the management of the transfer of those drugs: the former having played an active role in the negotiation, and the latter having provided logistical assistance in arranging the transfer of the remaining part of the cargo. In fact, in the face of the unforeseen events related to the discovery of the contents of the package, the transport to Padua of about 28 kilograms of Marijuana was arranged. The 45-year-old man from Salerno set out to find a courier to whom he could entrust the task, later identified as a 56-year-old man from Lamporecchio (PT), who was also, however, caught by police officers and arrested in November 2021 with nearly 5 kilograms of marijuana.
Another part of the remaining load would be discovered by the cops weeks later inside a “garage” located on Via Bellini/Scrovegni in Padua, a place that the 42-year-old from Fiesso d’Artico along with another accomplice, a 64-year-old from Padua with a history of property crimes, had rented to secure the narcotics. After several days of surveillance and tailing, in agreement with the prosecutor’s office, a raid was decided. Inside the garage in the possession of both subjects, well secured in a safe, the police officers found and seized more than 7 kilograms of Cocaine and more than 1 kilogram. Marijuana contained inside 2 wrappers of the same type as those seized from the 56-year-old from Lamporecchio. At the 64-year-old Padua man’s residence address, the cops seized more Marijuana, for an additional 2 kilograms, along with the sum of money of 1,800 euros; while at the Fiessese man’s residence address almost more than 8.5 thousand euros and various packaging material. For the two was triggered the immediate arrest and arranged the precautionary measure in prison (for this reason, in continuation of the first precautionary measure, both are now recipients of the obligation to stay with a prescription not to go out in the evening and night hours)
The narcotics trafficking “ledger”
Also to be found and seized was a “ledger,” with several counts relating to the proceeds obtained from the sales of the substance. In addition to other numerous episodes related to drug trafficking, with the participation of the additional recipients of the mandatory residence permit (equally active in the drug dealing chain), what certainly marked the entire investigation was the attempted murder in which the two 33-year-old Italian men mentioned above took part in June 2021 in Ibiza, together with a known 36-year-old Neapolitan convicted criminal.
It was immediately evident that the first two intended to join the latter in Spain in order to undertake alongside him an illicit activity consisting of extortion and drug trafficking, having, moreover, the necessary weapons. The Neapolitan had reassured them of the “opportunities” there would be for all of them in Ibiza. But some already scheduled drug deliveries and the need to recover certain debts related to the same business forced the two 33-year-olds to postpone their departure until June.
The Mobile Squad’s capturing activity also continued abroad, subject to notification of the foreign authority. The 36-year-old Neapolitan man, stirred up by the two accomplices – who, in addition to supplying him with the weapon, allegedly flanked him during the assault – manifested his intention to take revenge on a young man because of the latter’s swaggering attitude toward him in front of a woman.
In the early hours of June 5, 2021, the three initiated an armed raid on a villa located in the Can Ramon neighborhood in Santa Eularia des Rius, Ibiza, where a party was being held. Blocked by security personnel at the entrance gate, the firing group immediately adopted an intimidating attitude, threatening the use of a gun. Having obtained the opening of the gate and managed to gain direct access in their car (an Audi A3), the three headed for the front door of the villa. In the process, the victim, then 28 years old, was attacked in the head and legs with six gunshots.
At the conclusion of the armed action, the firing group returned to the car and fled, commenting on the incident. The Padua Mobile Squad conveyed the information thus acquired to the Spanish Guardi Civil, through the Central Service for International Police Cooperation of the Ministry of the Interior. The Spanish Police thus proceeded to arrest the 36-year-old Neapolitan, who, wanted for several hours, turned himself in, declaring himself the material perpetrator of the crime, without, however, indicating the participation of the other two.
Of the 18 subjects targeted for precautionary measures, 5 were found to be untraceable in the country as they are currently residing abroad. During the course of the search, further corroborating the evidentiary framework already acquired, an additional 13 kilograms or so of marijuana and 1 kilogram of cocaine were seized, resulting in the arrest in flagrante delicto of one of the subjects already the recipients of a residence obligation and an additional subject already under investigation at large.
