In the port of Gioia Tauro, the "logistics of Narcotrafficking" have been dismantled. The Guardia di Finanza reported the seizure of more than four tonnes of cocaine for a retail value of around 800 million euros as part of an operation involving 300 troops from the Provincial Command. by the Guardia di Finanza in Reggio Calabria, under the coordination of the local Prosecution of the Republic-Directorate of Antimafia District.

The military is enforcing strict personal freedom against 36 individuals, including 34 in prison and two under house arrest, involved in international drug trafficking aggravated by the purpose of facilitating the the ' ndrangheta. At the same time, searches and seizures are under way to execute precautionary measures aimed at the confiscation of assets and availability attributable to members of the organization, up to the competition of the amount of more than seven millions of euros, as well as the entire corporate assets of two companies active in the transport sector and used for the fulfillment of wrongdoings.

The Guardia di Finanza explained that, following complex investigations that saw the involvement of the most important European and international institutions and agencies in defiance of transnational crimes, the operation allowed for to deconstruct an articulated active criminal organization within the joyous port airport that would have ensured so much the recovery of large narcotic games, arrived onboard cargo ships from South America, how much subsequent storage at deposits deemed safe.

The financial police force specified that the organization, which would have assured the logistics of the narco-trafficking as if it were a real service company, was articulated on three separate levels of the players involved : the principal families of 'Ndrangheta able to ensure the import of the consignments of cocaine arriving from South America ; coordinators of the teams of infielder harbour attachés who would pay the team with a part of the' commission ', variable between 7 and 20% of the value of the load, received by the principals (reconstructed dations would amount to over seven million euros) ; port operators materially charged with extracting cocaine from the container and proceeding to the exfiltration of the same to safe places.

After the indication to local referents by South American suppliers of the appointment of the incoming ship and the container with the astonishing substance, the import was passing under the supervision of the involved officers, who were activated in order for the container to be disembarked at the appropriate time and placed in a defendant place. With the availability of the same, the port team provided it with a specially identified "safe" area to allow it to be opened and, therefore, the displacement of the narcotic in a second container that was withdrawn in the hours subsequent from a complacent carrier and transported to the place indicated by the organization's managers.

The Guardia di Finanza illustrated the ways in which the complex phase of the displacement of the containers with the drugs within the port and the subsequent transshipment of the drugs with a mode named as the "bridge" system from the port was illustrated. same managers as the organization. Specifically, identified the area suitable for the purpose, the container was placed in front of the container in which to transfer the drugs, leaving between the two the only distance needed at the opening of the doors for the displacement of the goods illicit. On top of the two containers, therefore, a third, named "bridge" was adhered to, with the aim of celing, also from above, movements in the area below. Once the area was set up, in order not to aroused suspicion, the harbours involved in the illicit traffic were being transported to the site of the hidden operations inside a fourth container that was being adriled in the same row where it was setting up the structure. Finally, in order to prevent foreign entities from hampering the illicit operations, two straddle carriers conducted by the investigated were stationed at the sides of the row of containers where the bridge was built, to prevent them from accessing and monitoring, from above, the eventual arrival of law enforcement. Ended the operations, the containers were being applied for counterfeit seals. The one from South America was placed on a "clone" seal, shipped from the same supplier and concealed inside one of the packages containing the astonishing substance, while a seal was affixed to the outgoing container. fail predisposed by the criminal companion responsible for the recovery of the narcotic.

The involvement of a member of the Anti-Fraud Office of the Customs and Gioia Tauro Monopoly Agency has also emerged, the recipient of a cautionary measure in prison, which-in order to facilitate the criminal organization investigated-has been confirmed. exploiting its own mansions as part of the planned inspection checks, would have altered the outcome of the radiogenic scanning operated on a container containing 300 kilos of cocaine, obscuring the anomalies encountered and attesting to the consistency of the scan with the stated load. For such behaviour the customs officer would have obtained a sum of money par at 3% of the value of the illicit cargo.

In addition, investigations have enabled the individuals responsible for the design and execution of a relevant traffic from South America to Calabria, which has been characterized by periodic and impressive imports of astonishing, each of them. two tons. On one occasion, in order to circumvent the controls, the Calabrian probes would have devised and requested the Colombian suppliers specific methods of concealing the narcotic, sending real and proper patterns in which it was suggested, through the depiction of the container, the weighted distribution of the load, with the prediction of the concealment of four cocaine panes within each single box of the "cover load" (bananas), excluding the first and the last rows of boxes, from not "contaminating" since more easily inspected. The cargo, consisting of about 1,920 cocaine panes, which was supposed to circumvent the checks made with the use of the scanner, was intercepted and placed under seizure by financiers.