Bari: Drug trafficking, 12 arrests and assets worth 800,000 euros seized

Since the early hours of this morning, the DIA has been executing a preventive detention order issued by the investigating judge of Bari at the request of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate against 12 people (11 in prison and 1 under house arrest) who are being investigated in various capacities for having promoted, managed and participated in an organisation whose aim was the illicit trafficking of narcotics and, as a result, for having procured, retained and sold cocaine on the market in Foggia and the surrounding area, in the province of BAT, in Lower Molise and in Abruzzo. In accordance with the prosecution approach accepted by the investigating judge, and without prejudice to any assessments that may be necessary in subsequent stages of the proceedings involving the defence, the investigation has made it possible to document and collect a solid framework of evidence against the association under investigation, which distributed on the illegal market over 20 kilos of high-purity cocaine between July 2020 and November 2021, corresponding to over 83,000 doses (approximately EUR 6.6 million).

During the investigationThe DIA, under the direction of the DDA of Bari and assisted by the individual operations of the regional police offices and departments, seized from the suspects over 10 kilos of narcotics, equivalent to about 45,000 doses, characterized by a very high degree of purity (the average of which, according to laboratory analysis, ranged from 42.59 percent to 87.04 percent) and two homemade devices found to have lethal attack potential. In addition, as part of an investigation branch within the same criminal procedure, in September 2022 the DIA seized from one of the suspects 100 grams of hashish, as well as real estate and movable property with a total value of about 200,000 euros. Based on the evidence obtained, the technical activities and the corroborating operations, the organization's turnover amounted to about 3,500,000 euros. To the arrests currently being carried out, there is the seizure of the assets illegally accumulated by the suspects, consisting of movable and immovable property, companies and current accounts, valued approximately at over 600,000 euros, to which is added the seizure of September 2022. In these hours, 15 other suspects have been notified of a summons to appear before the investigating judge of the Court of Bari for a preventive questioning, as provided for by the new legislation introduced by the Law of 9 August 2024114.

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