Overview

• Prato prosecutor’s office searched all 127 inmates in high- and medium-security wings with 27 placed under formal investigation.
• Investigators suspect four penitentiary police officers of accepting bribes to facilitate contraband delivery and are probing additional staff for illicit inmate contacts.
• Sophisticated smuggling networks used secret compartments in pots, sports balls, furniture and body concealment during family visits to deliver phones, microdevices and narcotics.
• Related raids targeted nine more individuals in Prato, Naples, Arezzo, Rome, Florence and Pistoia as part of the coordinated maxi-operation.
• Chronic understaffing and frequent leadership turnover at La Dogaia have undermined security and enabled systemic corruption within the prison.