Ariano Irpino. Arrested after being discovered by the drug-sniffing dog Susy.
Ariano Irpino. Hours of tension in the Ariano Irpino prison, where the prison police personnel seized drugs well hidden in the private parts of a family member admitted to the prison for a meeting with their detained son, and other inmates barricaded themselves in their cells to hinder a search by the agents.
Tiziana Guacci, regional secretary for Campania of the Autonomous Police Union, reconstructs the events: “Yesterday morning, the mother of a detainee entered the visit reception area of the Ariano Irpino prison in order to have a visual meeting with her detained son. Subsequently, after the formalities, during a service operation aimed at preventing and repressing the illicit trafficking of drugs or psychotropic substances, organized by the inspector in charge of the visit department with the support of the Canine Units of Benevento, the woman in the waiting room was signaled by the drug-sniffing dog named ‘Susy’. She was subjected to a thorough search by female prison police personnel, with a positive outcome.
The woman, cornered by the female personnel and the inspector, extracted three cylindrical packages wrapped in transparent cellophane containing a solid brown substance from her private parts, which turned out to be the drug “hashish”. In light of the facts and the presence of offenses under articles 73 of Legislative Decree 309/90 and article 80, on the order of the Attorney General, the woman was arrested.”
But this is not the only critical event that occurred in the Irpinian detention facility: “Also yesterday morning,” adds the unionist, “during a search in a cell, the inmates barricaded themselves to prevent the operations. It was necessary to intervene with shields and helmets to restore order and security. The inmates in question have been placed in isolation. We trust in the immediate transfer of the inmates responsible for these serious and violent episodes.”
For Donato Capece, general secretary of SAPPE, “these were moments of great tension, managed with great courage and professionalism by the prison police officers. What happened in the Ariano Irpino prison highlights how tensions and critical issues in the Italian penal system are constant. The situation is particularly alarming for the Prison Police, who pay heavily in terms of stress and operational difficulties due to these serious and continuous critical episodes. The current hallucinating situation in which the prison police officers of the nation are forced to work is absurd and incredible, and it deserves urgent measures from the leaders of the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Prison Administration, including adopting appropriate measures to ensure the safety and physical well-being of the agents who work in prisons, increasingly at the center of serious, violent, and unacceptable attacks.”
