Italian police raid illegal immigration scheme, drug network and weapons cache

In Orosei, Nuoro province, Carabinieri and the 10th Helicopter Unit carried out pre‑dawn arrests of four suspects accused of operating a fraudulent residency‑permit system that enabled at least 26 migrants from Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt to stay in Italy illegally. The scheme used fake rental contracts and false hospitality declarations to obtain false registrations, with proceeds laundered through bank accounts and an online gaming platform. Authorities seized two properties and three bank accounts and noted a prior intimidation bomb directed at a municipal planning official.

In Premosello Chiovenda, police executing a court order detained a 44‑year‑old Italian linked to a drug‑trafficking network operating in the low Ossola forests. Officers recovered a machete, radios, and quantities of heroin, cocaine and hashish, and also detained two local clients. The investigation referenced a previously convicted Moroccan figure as a senior associate.

In Orune, also in Nuoro, Carabinieri raids uncovered a cache of weapons marked “abrase,” including two rifles, two pistols, ammunition, 340 g of explosive material and 850 g of marijuana. Two residents were placed under preventive detention; one was already serving a sentence for another offence. The operation targeted a locally entrenched group involved in illegal firearms possession and drug distribution.