It was a real drug supermarket, open 24 hours a day. And at 3.30 this night, at the time of the police raid, which intervened with over 200 men, it was fully open and functioning. Thirty-two people were arrested – one under house arrest – accused, for various reasons, of criminal association aimed at drug trafficking, possession for the purpose of dealing, carrying and possession of firearms, extortion, theft and damage.
“The significant thing – explained the prosecutor of Reggio Calabria Giuseppe Borrelli when meeting journalists – is to note how in reality a part of the city had been, in fact, dedicated almost exclusively to this activity to the detriment of even the respectable citizens who happened to live in that area and who were limited in their ability to travel, obviously in addition to being prevented from formulating any type of protest or opposition”.
The “little room” in via Sbarre Inferiori
«A real point of attraction – he added – which was called “saletta”, illegally created on the ground floor of a public housing condominium in via Sbarre Inferiori 8. Often a crowd of people formed which annoyed the condominiums. Those who protested were heavily threatened.” The sale was totally managed by members of the city’s Roma community. «Entire families who lived off this trafficking», underlined the prosecutor Nicola De Caria.
Borrelli: “We need urban redevelopment work. Legality cannot be restored solely by the judiciary”
«The place – reported Borrelli – was equipped with video surveillance systems to ascertain in advance the arrival of the police forces. And this is precisely what backfired on the suspects. By entering the system we acquired unequivocal images and were able to identify some buyers.” For the prosecutor of Reggio Calabria «it is inconceivable that certain areas of the territory, partly reclaimed from the point of view of external manifestations and organized crime, are still enclaves of people who then end up influencing even obviously good people. The conditions of legality cannot be restored solely by the judiciary. Urban regeneration work is also needed through a work of redefining the conditions of legality in the use of a series of accommodations which have in fact been occupied illegally.” Together with Borrelli and De Caria, the deputy prosecutor Walter Ignazzitto, the police commissioner Paolo Sirna, the head of the Flying Squad Gianfranco Minissale.