Drug: heroin 'promoted' in the Catania area, 3 doses at a cost of 2

(ANSA) - CATANIA, DECEMBER 06 - Three doses of heroin for the price of two.

It was the 'promotion', launched on the cellphones of regular customers, of a group of family-run drug dealers routed by the Carabinieri of the Provincial Command of Catania who are carrying out an order against 26 people.

    The crimes hypothesized by the investigating judge, for various reasons, are criminal association aimed at drug trafficking and drug dealing.

   The investigations, coordinated by the Catania prosecutor's office, made it possible to undermine a partnership active in the capital and in the Etna villages of Misterbianco, Adrano, Mascalucia, San Giovanni La Punta and Piedimonte Etneo.

According to the indictment, with a precise modus operandi, the group dealt with the sale, wholesale and retail, of lots of heroin, also supplying other criminal organizations in the hinterland.

   The investigation revealed a complex drug trafficking management system, whose illicit proceeds, estimated at several hundred thousand euros, around 3,000 a day, were both reinvested in the drug market, through the purchase of around 3 kg of heroin per month.

The money was used to maintain the top management of the association and the pushers, paid with a sort of 'fixed salary' plus a 'commission' on the quantity sold.

In particular, the Public Prosecutor's Office of Catania reveals, "the association, in order to increase sales volumes, sent real" 3x2 promotional offers "to the mobile phones of regular customers, advertising the possibility of buying three doses at the cost of two.

   An initiative, 3x2, which gave its name to the operation which was carried out in the provinces of Catania, Messina, Palermo, Enna, Cosenza and Benevento by over 200 carabinieri from the provincial command of the Etna capital.

(HANDLE).