Officers of the Bagheria police station of the Polizia di Stato arrested a 29-year-old man from Palermo, caught in the act of possessing a drug for dealing.[1] The stop took place near Piazza San Pio, in the municipality of Ficarazzi, during territorial checks against street dealing in Palermo and the province.[1] Officers noticed two young men talking in a way they found suspicious, and one, seeing the police, quickly hid a container in the pocket of his hoodie and walked off to avoid a check.[1]

He was stopped at once and searched, and police said he already had specific records for drug offences.[1] Inside a pill box, officers found 10 wraps of hashish packaged in baking paper, together with 145 euros in cash, which they treated as proceeds of the illicit activity.[1]

A search of his home found two further blocks of the same substance, weighing 36.36 grams and 13.04 grams, with material suitable for weighing and packaging doses.[1] Those two blocks together weighed 49.40 grams, besides the ten doses already recovered in the square, whose weight was not given.[2] The drugs, the money and the cutting material were seized, and the arrested man was placed at the disposal of the judicial authority for a hearing to validate the arrest.[1] The police statement says criminal responsibility will be settled only by a final judgment, under the constitutional presumption of innocence.[1]