Countering the criminal phenomena of widespread illegality and verifying compliance with the rules regarding illegal activity and the installation of games of chance, these are the priority objectives of the checks that concerned the "Centro" district of Catania.
In particular, the carabinieri of the Piazza Dante company, with the support of colleagues from the 12th "Sicilia" Regiment and in collaboration with the staff of the Local Police of Catania and the Customs and Monopolies Agency, carried out, on their own initiative , targeted checks in some commercial activities in the area, focusing attention on those present in via F. Crispi, viale Libertà and via Umberto.
In this context, the soldiers of the Carabinieri, during the inspection phases of a kiosk bar in the centre, ascertained, in collaboration with the Local Police, that the owner of the place, a 27-year-old from Catania, had erected an external structure with tents and transparent doors, which effectively illegally invaded a 21 meter public area.
In particular, the tensile structure, which should have been immediately mobile and removable, was instead well secured to the ground with iron bolts, which also damaged the road surface. The entire illegal veranda, used and made available until then by the owner exclusively for the customers of his restaurant, was seized by the police.
Moving on to the inspection activities inside the premises, the staff of the Customs and Monopolies Agency, together with the carabinieri, found a violation of the TULPS (Consolidated Law on Public Security Laws) because within the same commercial activity they had found installed devices intended for gambling and otherwise, with technical characteristics different from those indicated by the law. For these reasons, an unauthorized video terminal used for online betting was also seized.
Due to all the violations found, the owner of the bar was reported to the judicial authority for the crime of invasion of land or buildings, as well as administrative sanctions for a total of 10.000 euros.
In a second phase of the service, more focused on road activities, the device deployed by the Piazza Dante Army organized various control posts in the area, along the main and secondary roads, and near the intersections, to combat especially those undisciplined driving behaviors that can create a serious danger to public safety and to motorists and pedestrians.
At the end of the checks, the crews reported a 25-year-old from Piazza Armerina for the crime of money laundering, since near Piazza Dante she was stopped by the military driving a Smart car which turned out to be stolen.
In particular, the woman stopped immediately appeared worried and nervous during the check, and she had a good reason to be so, since the soldiers immediately discovered that regular license plates had been mounted on the "city car", registered to the same driver, but relating to another vehicle. The car was seized.
Overall, the carabinieri stopped 29 vehicles and identified 51 people, imposing 8 administrative sanctions (failure to cover insurance and periodic inspection, driving without helmet, belt and licence), for a total of approximately 3.427 euros. A vehicle was also seized/administratively detained.
