Guardia di Finanza officers arrested an Italian citizen who had travelled by car from the Milan hinterland after a check near the motorway exit at Baveno.[1][2][3][4] Officers from the Omegna station, with the Verbania anti-drug dog unit, searched the man and car after the dog Clay paid attention to the vehicle and the man behaved suspiciously.[1][2][3] The man was arrested in flagrante and taken to the prison at Verbania.[5][2][4] The man was charged with violating Article 73 of D.P.R. 309/90, Italy’s consolidated law on narcotics and psychotropic substances.[3]

Officers found 1,036.85 grams of hashish, divided into ten packs, hidden in a black plastic bag under the driver’s seat.[5][2][3] Officers also found a packet with 105.13 grams of cocaine in the man’s jacket pocket, which is not counted in the cannabis total.[5][2][3] A later search of the man’s home in the province of Milan found no further drugs.[5][2][3][4]

The Guardia di Finanza said the seized drugs were probably intended to supply dealing in the Verbania area.[5][4] The Guardia di Finanza placed the operation within its economic control of the territory against illicit drug trafficking in the province.[3] The duty prosecutor at the Verbania public prosecutor’s office was informed and ordered the consequent steps, with the man transferred to Verbania prison.[5][4]