A drone and over half a kilo of drugs - mainly hashish and about ten grams of cocaine - were seized late last night inside the Santa Maria Capua Vetere prison by the penitentiary police. An officer noticed a drone on the ground in the Tevere department's walking area; the policeman rushed over and discovered that attached to the drone was a package with drugs, intended for a prisoner.
More or less at the same time, a prisoner staged a small fire in his cell, intending to go down to the walking area and try to retrieve the drugs. The inmate denied that the drugs were intended for him, but checks are underway. The drone and the drugs have been seized; probably the small aircraft, after entering the prison remotely controlled from outside, landed and was no longer able to fly due to lack of signal.
'Nowadays - comments the regional secretary of the penitentiary police union Uspp, Ciro Auricchio - we fight a daily war in prisons to prevent the introduction of drugs and mobile phones. Organized crime, with increasingly sophisticated technological means and stratagems, tries to destabilize internal security, and for this reason it is necessary to equip the penitentiary police with technologically advanced means to counter this scourge. In Santa Maria Capua Vetere, despite the serious shortage of staff, internal order and security are still guaranteed.'