In recent days, the Carabinieri of the Messina Gazzi station arrested – in the act of committing a crime – a 57-year-old local man, already known to the police, currently under house arrest for another reason, allegedly responsible for the crime of escape and attempted extortion against two traders in the capital.
Following a report received by the emergency call 112 NUE, the Carabinieri went to the southern area of the Peloritan capital, where a probable extortion attempt had occurred in a local commercial activity. On site, the Carabinieri immediately contacted the trader, who declared that shortly before a man around 55 years old had entered his shop and, pretending to hold a gun, ordered him to hand over the sum of 300 euros. However, the trader refused to comply with the request and immediately contacted the Carabinieri emergency services to report the threat he had suffered. At that point the alleged extortionist gave up his intent and left the business. Once the victim’s witness statements had been collected, which provided a generic description of the subject, the Carabinieri began looking for the man they managed to track down and stop in the immediate vicinity. At the specific request of the military as to why he had left his home, even though he was under house arrest, the man justified himself by falsely claiming that he had gone to the Messina Polyclinic to undergo a medical examination, warning the Carabinieri in advance, probably to create a false alibi.
The subsequent investigations by the military personnel, conducted through careful viewing of the footage from the surveillance cameras installed at the commercial business involved and throughout the adjacent area, allowed the military personnel to confirm the veracity of the statements made by the victim and to also ascertain one alleged extortion that the suspect committed against another traderand, who, questioned by the Carabinieri, declared that a few days earlier a man had entered his business and under threat he had the sum of 800 euros delivered. From the statements made by the trader, the Carabinieri hypothesized that it could be the same individual who in the circumstance had acted with the same modus operandi, who this time had completed his criminal action.
The man was therefore arrested by the Carabinieri and, following the validation hearing, the Judicial Authority ordered his imprisonment at the Messina Gazzi prison.