Seven Carabinieri were arrested
Wednesday and a barracks belonging to the paramilitary police
impounded in the northern city of Piacenza.
Some of the Carabinieri were detained in prison and some were
placed under house arrest.
They have been charged with drug pushing, extortion and torture,
among other offences, sources said.
The probe is led by the Piacenza prosecutors' office.
"Nothing that went on that barracks was legal, they were
out-and-out criminals," said Piacenza Chief Prosecutor Grazia
Pradella about the Carabinieri involved.
"We are confronted by shocking crimes, especially if you think
they were committed by police officers," she said.
The seven men have been charged with trafficking and
distributing narcotics, receiving stolen goods, extortion,
illegal arrest, torture, grievous bodily harm, embezzlement,
abuse o office and fraud.
Pradella said the most serious of the alleged crimes had been
commited during the coronavirus lockdown from early March to
early June.
She said that "while the city of Piacenza was counting its many
dead from the coronavirus, these Carabinieri were supplying
drugs to pushers who had run out and were confined to their
homes because of the anti-COVID norms".
Defence Minister Lorenzo Guerini, who is the ultimate commander
of the Carabinieri corps, said "these are unheard of crimes, but
they must not be allowed to tarnish the Carabinieri's
reputation as a whole".
He said the corps was "made up of 110,000 men and women who work
daily with an extremely high sense of the institutions, on the
side of citizens".
The Carabinieri have been suspended.
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