Trento Drug Ring Leader Fitts Faces Major Cocaine Trafficking Charges
He held his accomplices, “galloping” – couriers with a turnover of over one hundred million credits for cocaine delivery on consignment – at gunpoint and threatened them. The 25-year-old Thomas Fitts, considered the gang leader of the drug-dealing ring dismantled last Saturday by the Direzione Investigativa Antimafia (DIA) in Trento, had organized a web of drug distribution, purchasing outside the region and reselling to his accomplices. These accomplices then engaged in retail sales to third-party customers who were consumers from the provinces of Trento and Bolzano.
The trafficking was mainly based on the sale of a minimum quantity of 5 grams at a base price of 150/200 thousand lire per gram. The eleven arrests made last Saturday, except for Elisa Gamberoni who is under house arrest, were distributed across prisons in half of the Triveneto region to prevent potential contact, as the operation was conducted in collaboration with the Direzione Distrettuale Antimafia (DDA).
Judicial procedures and investigations
Yesterday, some arrest validations were carried out: in Padua, Fitts is detained in the high-security prison, defended by lawyer Pisani from Trento, and was heard by the venetian judge Bortolotti, who validated the arrest as the alleged mastermind of the entire cocaine trafficking operation.
In Verona, at Montorio prison, Mara Vescovi, Fitts’s 24-year-old fiancée, was questioned. She was arrested in Pescara, where she was for a work commitment. Judge Guidorizzi validated the arrest and rejected the request for house arrest made by her defense lawyer Alberto Franchi of Verona. Today, Franchi intends to speak with the public prosecutor Davide Ognibene of Trento, who leads the investigation that resulted in the major anti-drug operation.
Mara Vescovi’s situation appears delicate: she claims to have no involvement in her fiancé’s trafficking activities and allowed him to stay in her house in Lizzana, where Fitts was caught in the act. Inside the residence, twenty grams of cocaine were also found, which implicated the gang leader and set off a domino effect implicating all his accomplices.
Yesterday, at Verona, Judge Guidorizzi also heard Elena Tomasini, 34 years old, represented by lawyer Giuseppe Viola from Rovereto. Her shop was suspected of trafficking, and she, an unregistered individual and owner of “Capolinea,” was considered innocent and trustworthy. Today, the preliminary investigation judges will hear from Andrea Pontillo, defended by lawyer Tornasi from Rovereto, at Bolzano prison before Judge Mori; then Cristian Chiesa, defended by lawyer Janes of Trento; followed by Morgan Ballerini and Alessandro Zandonai, defended by lawyer Trinco from Rovereto, at Rovereto prison in the presence of Judge La Ganga of Trento.
This plea bargaining session will also include the public prosecutor Ognibene. Among the arrested, there are also the Arco resident Andrea Piobbici and the Siena-born Denis Berkovic, originally from Bosmache, who, along with Vescovi, are considered organizers of the trafficking, assisting Fitts in recovering credits through intimidation.
Agents led by Commissioner Sciamanna have also reported five young individuals, known for their prior convictions and as minor pawns within the larger network: M. Z., 31, from Rovereto; E. T., 32, from Rovereto; D. C., 21, from Rovereto; R. P., 21, from Bolzano; and D. M., 19, from Trento. Fitts claimed credits totaling 30 million from M. Z., 20 million from Ballerini, 7 million from Berkovic, 5 million each from R. P., D. M., and D. C., and 3 million from E. T., among many others involved in the coca trade based in Rovereto.
