From the technical assessment of the eight containers that arrived in recent months at the port of Gioia Tauro, stopped and subjected to inspection by the Financial Police and the Customs Agency on the suspicion that they contained war material destined for Israel, no “content of criminal importance” emerged, so the load was distributed to its final destination.
This is what we learned regarding the controversy over the containers coming from India and destined for Israel which were blocked after a report regarding the possible use of the steel bars, some square and others round, transported, which could appear to be material for making armaments. The issue arose from a journalistic investigation, taken up by the Bds movement and the USB and Orsa unions, which had raised the alarm about the possibility that “war material” could transit from the port of Gioia to Israel. In recent months it had already emerged that the steel bars were not destined directly to an arms factory, as had initially been hypothesized, but according to the loading documents to an intermediation agency, the “Banyan Group international”, which usually deals with commercial connections between India and Israel. In doubt as to whether it was a cover to smuggle “arms materials” from Italy, after having been informed, the Palmi Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Financial Police and the Customs Agency ordered a technical assessment of the material. The outcome would have excluded the existence of a suspicious load for which transit authorization would have been necessary, pursuant to law 185/90 which prohibits the export of weapons to countries at war. Hence the decision to redirect the shipment to Israel.