Police from Rome’s Primavalle district arrested a 41-year-old man and accused him of drug possession, in the Italian formulation detenzione di droga.[1][2] Officers stopped him as he left a cellar in via Marcello Palmisano and found three packages holding 175 grams of cocaine and two mobile phones.[1] The keys he carried opened the cellar, where police found another 230 grams of cocaine, 75 grams of hashish and more than half a kilogram of marijuana.[1][2] The cellar also held scales and material for packaging the drugs.[1] The cellar also held accounting notes and nine empty packs of the type used to hold a kilo of cocaine.[2]

A search of his home found more drugs, a small scale and notes hidden in the bathroom’s false ceiling.[1] Police seized 14,700 euros in cash, kept in a piece of furniture and in a double bottom inside an electric fireplace.[1][2] They also seized four watches, three Rolex and one Cartier, found in a safe and behind a skirting board.[1] The hiding place in the fireplace was discovered through a video the man had deleted from his mobile phone, which investigators recovered.[1]

The investigation began with his repeated trips by black Audi to garages and cellars in via Marcello Palmisano.[3]

Rome’s public prosecutor’s office is coordinating checks on his phones and his criminal contacts, and is examining his and his partner’s income for a possible asset-prevention measure.[1]