MINISTERO DELL’INTERNO DIPARTIMENTO DELLA PUBBLICA SICUREZZA DIREZIONE CENTRALE PER I SERVIZI ANTIDROGA antdroga.interno.gov.it PREFACE After intensive editing and analysis, the Direzione Centrale per i Servizi Antidroga is pleased to publish also this year its “Annual Report” (concerning the year 2019), which gives an overview on the activities carried out and on the results achieved in Italy in the fght against illicit drug traffcking. The scenario is similar to that of previous years although some aspects are worth being underlined. The overall number of drug operations and of the reports to the Judicial Authorities did not remarkably change, the situation outlined was in line with 2018. In terms of number of drug operations 2019 set the second highest level ever, while the number of the reports was consistent with last ten-year trend. Positive and negative variances (-2.93% as to reports and 0.70% as to law enforcement interventions) are indicators of a stable operational context. On the other hand, drug seizures remarkably decreased if compared to the previous year and went from 123 tons in 2018 to less than 55 tons in 2019. The percentage decrease was greater than a half (-55.66%). The quantity seized in 2019 was again in line with the quantities seized in the years before 2013. Almost all drug seizures decreased, except for cocaine and synthetic drugs. Mention must be made in particular of the decrease in the seizures of cannabis derivatives:hashish (-73.25%), marijuana (-39.83%) and cannabis plants (-57.37%). In absolute terms, in 2019 drug seizures decreased by 70 tons in comparison with the previous year. Examining the data on each substance, such a decline was connected to the negative trend of cannabis seizures. Indeed it is worth mentioning that over the last fve years cannabis has been 90% of all the drugs intercepted in Italy by law enforcement authorities. A more in-depth analysis has highlighted a remarkable decrease in cannabis seizures (-41 tons) in national and international waters ‒ both in the Tyrrhenian and the Adriatic Sea ‒ although between April and May 2019 three important seizures, for a total of about 13 tons, were carried out in the waters of the Sicily Channel and off the coasts of S.M. di Leuca. The in-depth analysis of 2020 data and seizures will tell us if it was a temporary result or if rather than a reversal of trends in illicit fows it was due to the ability of cannabis traffckers to readjust their routes and operational strategies. Also heroin remarkably decreased (-37.06%) in comparison with 2018. However, this downward trend is less worthy of notice since the high fgure reported in 2018 was mainly linked to the detection of a huge quantity of about 270 kg at the Port in Genoa. Indeed in the ten-year period 2019 heroin seizures were in line with last fve -year average. As to the positive variance, the volumes of cocaine seizures almost tripled in comparison with 2018 (+127.61%) with a record seizure of 8.3 tons. In a ten-year period it was the highest quantity ever seized since 2010, except for two signifcant seizures amounting to 3.2 tons as a whole carried out in January in the Port of Genoa and in November in the Port of Gioia Tauro. Cocaine spreading remarkably increased and its trade continued to be the core business of the main national and international crime groups, as it comes out from the number of operations and reports which were the highest ever recorded in the ten-year period. Synthetic drugs deserve separate consideration. The quantities seized were more or less limited, but the increase registered (dose: +95.62% and weight: +32.16% ) showed that such psychotropic substances are largely used above all by young people. At present the threat posed by such drugs is not as high as that of other drugs also because they are not the core business of organized crime yet. However, it is to be assumed that in the next years law enforcement authorities will have to cope with this phenomenon and its insidious supply methods: on-line orders and transactions as well as the increased use of e-commerce postal deliveries. The situation concerning the New Psychoactive Substances was similar to that of synthetic drugs. The majority of NPS are substances of synthetic origin, which are obtained by constantly modifying the chemical structure of controlled psychotropic substances. They are produced with the aim of introducing onto the market non-controlled substances which are not included in the international Tables. In the year under study, the Early Warning System of the Department for Anti-Drug Policies, with which the DCSA is cooperating as a Project Unit, has identifed ‒ also thanks to the reports by law-enforcement agencies ‒ 15 “non-scheduled” molecules with a new composition (mainly cannabinoids, cathinones and oppioids), which are components of the psychoactive products destined for consumption. Although such substances are not widespread in our country, it is necessary not to be taken by surprise and keep focusing on such consumption phenomena which in some overseas countries pose a real threat to public health. Also the data concerning foreigners involved in drug traffcking and pushing were in 2019 in line with the previous year, although slightly decreasing (-3.48%). Their overall number amounted to 13,775, of whom 9,650 were arrested. They still represented less than one third (39.45%) of all the persons reported for such offences and the fgure was one of the highest ever recorded in the ten year period except for the number of the previous two years, which was slightly higher. They were mainly non-EU unskilled workers, mostly Moroccans, Albanians, Nigerians, Gambians, Tunisians and Senegalese who were recruited to sell the drugs on the domestic markets. As to conspiracy to the ends of drug traffcking, the number of foreigners was approximately 860, showing a modest percentage increase (+7.58%) in comparison with 2018. For the second consecutive year it is important to focus the attention on the number of Italian and foreign minors selling cannabis derivatives (hashish and marijuana). Although the seizures of such substances were remarkably decreasing, in 2019 the number of underage youth (958 as a whole, of whom 808 Italians and 150 foreigners) pushing cannabis derivatives was again high in comparison with other drugs (224 as to cocaine and only 27 as to heroin). This fgure should be carefully monitored also in the future, not only considering the age of the persons reported, but also the diffusion of such substances with the consumption patterns that directly affect young people. Overdose deaths have increased for the third consecutive year, with a further rise of 37 units, with an overall number of 373 persons, (an increase of 11.01% as compared to 2018). Over the half of deaths were caused by opiates abuse (heroin in 169 cases, methadone 16, fentanyl 1 and morphine 1 case). Since 1973, when they were frst recorded in Italy, there has been a total of 25,780 drug abuse deaths. The ongoing trend is extremely alarming, therefore analysts and experts will have to continue to study this phenomenon, trying to stem it, not only in terms of fght against traffcking and distribution. From the operational point of view, in order to raise the capacity of the national system to respond to the drug traffcking threat, a Decree was issued in August by the Chief of Police ‒ Director General of the Public Security ‒ to establish the criteria to assign the investigations to one of the three Italian law enforcement Agencies. Investigations are then entrusted to the agencies on the basis of the information acquired and developed by DCSA within its coordination duty, enhancement of the information fows and support to the counteracting activity, through a chronological rotation that guarantees a fair and rigorous subdivision of investigative efforts. Although the traffcking routes reaching the borders of our country remain the same, the analysis of the major antidrug operations concluded in 2019, highlighted some investigative features of drug traffcking in Italy. Most drugs seized in Italy are destined for the domestic market. However, some signifcant seizures indicate that our country, which is located in the center of the Mediterranean, is also used as a hub for the shipments destined for other European countries. Investigations conducted and coordinated by DCSA confrm that the “contamination” of containers (so-called “Rip-off”) is the favourite modus operandi for oceanic routes. The large seizures made in the ports of Genoa, Vado Ligure, Civitavecchia and Livorno, as well as the one carried out in Gioia Tauro (RC), indicate that criminal organizations, that had considered the port in Gioia Tauro the main gateway of the cocaine from South America, are recently preferring other Mediterranean ports, in addition to those in Northern Europe, in order to reduce the risk of losing their shipments. Italy is also a transit area towards North European markets for maritime shipments of opiates from Bulgaria, Turkey and Iran. The Turkish, Albanian and Nigerian organizations play a major role for drug supply and shipment to the destination and transit ports and airports. The analysis of drug traffcking confrms that, also in 2019, organized crime considered drug traffcking its main source of fnancing, even if this is not a novelty. Drug traffcking remains «the main engine of any illicit activities carried out by large criminal syndicates», since it generates higher proceeds than any other licit or illicit business and represents the easiest way to self- fnance other criminal activities. The phenomenological examination and the analysis of the indicators provided by the antidrug activities carried out in 2019 by the local investigative Units and Bureaus coordinated by the Direzione Centrale per i Servizi Antidroga, pointed out that the criminal organizations running illicit traffcking are resilient to the effective and continuous counter-activities by the law enforcement agencies and the Judicial Authorities.