They altered the controls to favor the 'Ndrangheta.
For this reason, two officials of the Customs and Monopolies Agency of Gioia Tauro and an employee of a shipping company were arrested by the financiers of Reggio Calabria with the support of the Scico and the collaboration of Europol and the DCSA.
The three, according to the accusation, would be involved in international drug trafficking aggravated by the aim of facilitating the 'Ndrangheta.
Overall, there are 7 people under investigation by the Reggio Calabria DDA, with the support of Eurojust, including a third customs official, already arrested in another operation in 2022.
The precautionary measures were ordered by the investigating judge at the request of the Reggio Calabria DDA led by Giovanni Bombers.
The officials of the Customs and Monopolies Agency were taken to prison: Antonio Pititto, 60 years old, resident in Mileto, in charge of scanner control, and Mario Giuseppe Italo Solano, 51 years old, resident in Limbadi, on duty at the office anti-fraud, until 2021 responsible for the "scanner control" and subsequently for the "goods inspection".
Elisa Calfapietra, 36, resident in Gioia Tauro, was placed under house arrest.
The investigations were conducted by the Economic and Financial Police Unit-Gico of Reggio Calabria, also with the collaboration of personnel from the Customs and Monopolies Agency, and the results revealed that the officials were part of a criminal association, now disjointed , made up of the manager of a shipping company, unfaithful dock workers and representatives of the main 'Ndrangheta gangs operating in the Gioia Tauro plain area.
The customs officers, on duty at key points of the control device, such as the scanner control and the "visual" control by opening the containers, according to the accusation, would have allowed huge quantities of cocaine to leave the port by altering the results of inspections or the failure to detect anomalies in the inspected loads.
The documents found by the financiers also include precise instructions, provided by customs officials, on how the South American narcos should have placed the bricks of cocaine inside the cover loads, in order to significantly reduce the possibility that these would be identified during the ordinary checks.
Among other things, according to what emerged from the investigations, if the load had been discovered anyway, the customs officers themselves would have provided the organization with the seizure reports to justify the loss of the drugs, thus avoiding the payment of the agreed amount. .
Furthermore, one of the customs officials
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