Canadian police have arrested and charged a Toronto man believed to have sold over 1,000 'suicide kits' in about 40 countries, including Italy.
The BBC reports it.
Kenneth Law, 57, a self-styled chef, is accused of counseling and assisting suicide.
Among the people who died after wearing a sodium nitrite-based face mask, contained in the kit, is a 63-year-old teacher from the province of Trento who was found dead in her apartment.
The investigation, police said, began after the sudden death of a person in Toronto who had ingested a lethal substance.
The first, and at the moment only, Italian victim is a 63-year-old teacher, residing in Trentino, who took her own life on 4 April with poison purchased on the web.
The name of the woman, who died in her home in Valsugana, appears on the list of nine people indicated by the Canadian Interpol as clients of the self-styled Ontario chef, arrested on 31 March last, who allegedly admitted to having supplied hundreds of people with a fake sodium nitrite facial mask.
In Italy the kit, as well as the Trentino teacher, was purchased by 8 other people residing in the provinces of Rome, Milan, Naples, Monza, Lecco, Caserta, Bologna and Pavia.
People who have all been traced by the police force and who are all well.
The only victim, as mentioned, is therefore the 63-year-old woman residing in Trentino and the investigations are underway by the Trento Public Prosecutor's Office and the Carabinieri of the Borgo Valsugana Company.
The military were the first to intervene at the woman's home, cataloging her finds and informing the judicial authorities of what had happened.
The Trento prosecutor's office has opened a file for instigating suicide, currently against unknown persons.
From the first information, the woman was found in her bed, with a letter next to her explaining how she had managed to take her own life and a note intended for family members, in which she said she was sorry for the gesture and explained: "I'm too sick, too pain, I had no other choice".
Investigations into the online sale of suicide kits have begun in the town of Peel, Ontario, after reports of seven UK and three US suicide deaths, including a 17-year-old boy, linked to online sales of sodium nitrite.
The investigations led the Canadian authorities to identify Kenneth Law as allegedly responsible for the shipments of the apparently harmless substance used in the food preservation process.
Law was arrested in Canada on March 31 for the crime of incitement to suicide.
It would appear that he sold around 1,200 kits online to people in 40 different countries.
The first suicide with the kit sold online by some sites attributable to Law dates back to two years ago, when a 22-year-old philosophy student was found lifeless in a London hotel room.
Near his body was a packet of sodium nitrite.
At the time of the events, the father had intervened publicly to condemn the sale of products for suicide online, noting the ease of access to substances for frail people.
Similar is the story of a 23-year-old girl from Surrey who died last year.
The Central Division of the Italian criminal police was notified by Canadian Interpol on April 29, through the notification of nine addresses to which the kit had been sent.
Among these was also that of the Trentino teacher.
Police Headquarters and Italian Carabinieri Companies were immediately alerted to carry out checks together with the local social and health authorities at the remaining eight reported addresses.
Canadian Interpol has also asked the investigators to report any links or elements useful to the investigation.