Imperia prison: 100 investigated for drug and smartphone trafficking

The Imperia State Police with the Regional Investigation Unit of the Turin Penitentiary Police, coordinated by the deputy prosecutor Matteo Gobbi of the Imperia Prosecutor's Office, served 100 notices of conclusion of investigations against as many subjects responsible in various capacities for the crimes committed in the period from July 2023 to July of the following year.

The investigation, which arose from the discovery of narcotic substances destined for inmates of the Valle Armea prison, made it possible to reconstruct the process of supplying and selling drugs within the prison. The investigators reconstructed the complex system through which Italian and foreign inmates, in collaboration with people outside the prison, obtained narcotic substances which were then resold within the institution itself at higher prices than those on the external market.

During the investigation, the people and channels through which the drugs were resold and the recipients of the money from the sale were identified. In prison there was a real drug brokering activity which took place mainly in the library despite the surveillance of the staff present. The investigation also made it possible to reveal the systematic availability of smartphones in use by prisoners who thus maintained contact with the outside world also through social media. The searches that took place inside the prison allowed the seizure of drugs, cell phones and rudimentary weapons. At the end of the investigation, in addition to the normal external supporters, the supply channels, the various couriers of the substances and the recipients of the money, a psychologist from the institute and a Penitentiary Police officer on duty at that institute were also reported, accused of having made false declarations.