Carabinieri police on Tuesday
executed search warrants in private homes and jails in many
parts of Italy as part of a major operation clamping down on the
smuggling of drugs into Italian prisons.
The operation is linked to a probe by Turin prosecutors in which
over 100 people are under investigation.
The raids took place in the provinces of Turin, Alessandria,
Biella, Vercelli, Cuneo, Sassari, Savona Imperia and Modena.
"Those who thought they could transform penitentiary
institutions into drug dealing centres today receive a clear
message: the State is present," said Justice Undersecretary
Andrea Delmastro delle Vedove, an MP for Premier Giorgia
Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party.
"This is an extraordinary operation, which hits drug trafficking
in prisons hard and strongly reiterates that the State will not
retreat an inch in the face of crime.
"With the Meloni Government, the State has become the State:
with its antibodies, with the Penitentiary Police and with
operations like this, which strike at the root of organized
crime's attempts at infiltration".
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
