Fear returns among the hunters of the Gioia Tauro plain. After the armed assault that occurred in mid-October on the road that connects Rosarno with Laureana di Borrello, a new episode has raised the alarm in an area that has been living with a worrying phenomenon for years.
According to initial information, last Sunday morning, a group of armed men blocked a car with some hunters on board, threatening them and forcing them to hand over their rifles and other personal effects. This time the action is even more bloody: one of them was in fact savagely beaten, suffering a fracture of the nasal septum. The robbers also allegedly shot at the radiator of the victims’ car to prevent them from starting again and then disappeared undisturbed in another vehicle.
The methods, particularly brutal, closely resemble those already seen a few weeks ago, when a commando armed with Kalashnikovs had acted with the same rapidity, again along a secondary artery in the Tyrrhenian area of Reggio. A script that repeats itself and which seems to affect, almost exclusively, the stretch of territory between Bagnara Calabra and Rosarno, where several similar episodes have occurred in recent years.
Despite numerous interventions by the police and some operations that in the past had led to the dismantling of gangs specialized in robberies against hunters and couriers, the phenomenon seems to resurface with cyclical regularity. Its persistence suggests the existence of an organized network, capable of moving quickly and coordinated in isolated and difficult to control areas. The dynamics of these robberies follows a now consolidated pattern: the victims are accompanied on provincial or inter-farm roads, in the morning hours, by hooded and armed men who, with extreme determination, take away their hunting weapons – often of high value – and other objects of interest. It is not excluded that the stolen rifles will be sent to illegal markets or reused in criminal contexts, a hypothesis which makes the extent of the phenomenon even more serious.
In addition to the direct danger to people’s safety, these robberies are also having repercussions on the economic and social fabric of the Plain. Fear has in fact pushed many enthusiasts to give up hunting trips, reducing a flow of presences which, in the hunting seasons, represented a small but significant support for local activities: bars, distributors, armories, bakeries and other businesses that move around that economic microcircuit. The repetition of such serious incidents raises questions about the safety of internal areas and the need for a more targeted control plan. The extension of the territory and the presence of numerous secondary roads make monitoring complex, but the frequency and violence of the actions require a leap in quality in prevention strategies. The police forces operate daily in the field and in recent years have achieved significant results in combating illicit trafficking and organized crime. However, the series of robberies against hunters represents a signal that cannot be underestimated.
The risk is that the perception of insecurity ends up consolidating, fueling mistrust and isolation in an area which, more than others, needs trust in the institutions and presence of the State. We therefore need a coordinated and visible response, capable of restoring serenity to an area that cannot get used to fear. Because if every hunting season opens with the worry of a new ambush, it means that the Plain, once again, is forced to defend its normality.
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