Carabinieri police in Messina have
carried out an extensive search operation as part of an
investigation coordinated by DDA anti-Mafia investigators into
21 detainees and nine penitentiary police officials at the local
Gazzi prison who are suspected of having smuggled drugs and cell
phones into the facility, investigative sources said Friday.
The search operation also involved four others who are under
investigation or under house arrest, the sources said.
A total of 34 suspects are under investigation, Messina's State
attorney's Office said in a note, as part of a probe into a
group of people suspected of introducing into the local prison
"cell phones and drugs with the help of a number of penitentiary
police officers".
Preliminary investigations revealed "an intense network of phone
conversations between detainees and the external environment and
a consistent activity of consumption and sale of drugs among
detainees", said the DDA office in the Sicilian city.
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