He thought he had found the perfect shortcut to an easy profit: a wallet picked up from the ground, a contact on a social profile and a request for money back. A “tax” on the misfortune of others which, however, cost a 54-year-old man with multiple criminal convictions from Brescia dearly. His career as an improvised extortionist ended the exact moment he touched the money, only to find himself in the company of the Flying Squad men.
Police intervention
What changed the trajectory of what could have been an easy profit was the behavior of the victim: instead of giving in to blackmail, he preferred to dial 112. The unfortunate man told the officers that he had been hooked up online by a stranger who demanded a large sum to return the documents and personal effects he had lost shortly before. The Police then orchestrated the counter-move: the banknotes for the payment were marked and photocopied one by one, transforming the exchange into damning evidence.
When the man showed up for the appointment, he didn’t even have time to celebrate the collection. The investigators, camouflaged in the meeting area, sprang into action as soon as the money changed hands, blocking it with the banknotes still in their pockets.
The blitz moves home: GHB emerges
But for the 54-year-old the worst was yet to come. Given his numerous precedents for property crimes, the police officers decided to also search his home. This is where the case took a new level: around 50 grams of GHB, the liquid substance sadly known as the “rape drug”, were found in the home. Together with the synthetic drug, the police seized a precision scale and the material necessary to divide the narcotic into doses.
In addition to the charge of extortion for the miserable attempt to profit from his wallet, the man will now also have to answer for detention for the purpose of dealing drugs.
