The trial born from the investigation of the DDA of Bologna, which in the summer of 2023 led to the arrest of 13 people residing in Forli, is nearing completion.
Among them the Italian truck driver, Gianluca Fiore.
Sentences of up to twenty years in prison, a total of almost 200 years in prison, for 17 defendants. The trial, with an abbreviated procedure, for the serious charge of international drug trafficking, is coming to an end with the requests of the DDA prosecutor, Roberto Ceroni from Bologna, made in the preliminary session, with judge Nadia Buttelli.
The defendants, an Italian-Albanian organization, mostly residents of the Forli area, were caught with about 114 kilograms of cocaine, 37 kilograms of hashish and more than one million euros in cash.
One of the spicy details was that many of the cocaine packages were stamped with the face (portrait) of Pablo Escobar, the former boss of the Medellin cartel in Colombia.
The investigation from which the trial arose had also developed along another line; The investigations also included the former Forlivese deputy of the League, Gianluca Pini , who was arrested in 2023 and spent several days in prison, before agreeing, in March, to a total sentence of one year, 11 months and 14 days, with conditional suspension, for episodes of corruption that were opposed by the prosecutors of Forli and Bologna.
However, Pini, according to the investigation, was never involved in international drug trafficking, which was put under the supervision of the Bologna judiciary, writes "Ilrestodelcarlino".
The latter even refers to the prosecutor of the case, according to whom the organization "trafficked rivers of drugs from Albania".
Among those arrested for drug trafficking, in June 2023, was also a truck driver from Forli, Gianluca Fiore, a friend of former MP Pini, who was sentenced to 14 years.
The man appeared to be the owner of a trucking and logistics company, dealing with people of Albanian origin, some with serious drug records.
The proceedings began with an arrest made by the Forli Flying Squad, in December 2019, as part of an investigation by the Forli Prosecutor's Office into a drug trafficking activity carried out by a group of persons, including foreigners.
Investigators believed that one of the group's suppliers was Gianluca Fiore from Forli, in relationships with people of Albanian origin, some with serious drug records.
One of his associates, for example, had transported over 30 kilograms of heroin in 2004 and had been part of a criminal association from which over 300 kilograms of heroin had been recovered.
In August 2020, two Italian brothers were arrested, who were bringing 28 kilograms of cocaine to Italy from Belgium, on board a truck followed by a car, in which Fiore and an Albanian were traveling, who were also stopped and searched .