21 inmates, 9 officers suspected of drugs, phone smuggling

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 31 - Carabinieri police in Messina have carried out an extensive search operation as part of an investigation coordinated by DDA anti-Mafia investigators into 21 detainees and nine penitentiary police officials at the local Gazzi prison who are suspected of having smuggled drugs and cell phones into the facility, investigative sources said Friday.
    The search operation also involved four others who are under investigation or under house arrest, the sources said. A total of 34 suspects are under investigation, Messina's State attorney's Office said in a note, as part of a probe into a group of people suspected of introducing into the local prison "cell phones and drugs with the help of a number of penitentiary police officers".
    Preliminary investigations revealed "an intense network of phone conversations between detainees and the external environment and a consistent activity of consumption and sale of drugs among detainees", said the DDA office in the Sicilian city. (ANSA).