A 30-year-old man from Rome was arrested in the Alessandrino district after he threw a backpack containing more than 3 kilograms of hashish from his balcony to keep the drug from a house search.[1] Investigators from the V Distretto Prenestino and the Frascati police station had been watching the flat and the man’s movements for some time and had cordoned off the area before forcing entry.[1] The flat was used as a storage base on the eighth floor of a building in the Alessandrino quartiere.[1] The investigative work had begun several days earlier after suspicious movements were reported at the flat.[2] He was arrested on suspicion of possession of narcotic substances for supply and of resisting a public official.[1]

Nelly, a drug dog of the Rome police headquarters, gave the first confirmation of the officers’ suspicions about the flat.[1] After the dog signalled and officers asked him to open the door, the man threw the backpack onto the street below and later reacted violently to the officers who, after a long negotiation, got into the flat.[1] Officers who were watching the building from outside recovered the backpack, which held more than three kilograms of hashish, a precision scale, packaging material and a vacuum-sealing machine.[1] Further doses of the same drug were found in the living room together with knives believed to have been used to cut and prepare the quantity for retail sale.[1] A mobile phone thrown onto the adjoining balcony before the raid was seized and is under further examination.[1]

After the arrest was validated, the judicial authority ordered house arrest with an electronic bracelet.[1] The police note that the findings belong to the preliminary investigation stage and that the suspect is presumed innocent until a final judgment.[3]