Italian police arrest suspects and seize drugs in Palermo and Macerata

Police in the Zen 2 district of Palermo arrested a local man after a coordinated operation involving the State Police investigative unit, the mobile squad, army engineers and fire‑brigade units. The search uncovered a 9 mm Beretta with a machined‑off serial number, 107 pistol cartridges, 175 rifle cartridges, four bundles of hashish weighing about 400 g, 69 pre‑packaged doses totaling 86 g, precision scales and packaging material. The suspect now faces charges for possession of illegal firearms, ammunition and drugs intended for trafficking.

In the province of Macerata, carabinieri carried out a raid on a bar between Cingoli and Apiro, arresting a young chef who was found with a range of narcotics hidden under a kitchen tile. Seized items included 7 g of hashish, 8 g of cocaine in 12 packets, an ecstasy tablet, almost 2 g of MDMA and ketamine residues. Further searches of his home revealed 158 g of hashish, about 12 g of cocaine (including 0.6 g of pink cocaine), 11 g of marijuana, nearly 1 g of MDMA, another ecstasy tablet, 2 g of ketamine, 7 g of “wax” (cannabis honey), packaging supplies and handwritten records of the trafficking operation. The chef was placed under house arrest, while the bar’s manager was fined for sanitary violations.