They dismantle a drug 'drive-in' in the largest cemetery in Italy with the camels camouflaged as flower sellers

The Italian police have dismantled a group of drug traffickers who offered cocaine in a kind of drive-in service at the exit of the main cemetery in Rome with the complicity of three policemen. “Customers, most of the time by car and without even getting out, approached people posing as flower sellers, paid and received the amount of drugs requested,” the Italian media reported on Wednesday, citing a statement. police press.

As part of this operation called Cleopatra, 22 people have been investigated and 11 of them are in pretrial detention, while another six remain under house arrest.. Police have not specified whether corrupt police officers were among those arrested in Tuesday's raid.

The detainees are accused of various crimes, including criminal conspiracy for drug trafficking, illegal possession of firearms, aggravated theft or corruption. The three policemen transmitted “secret information” that allowed the group to continue with its activities and avoid “investigations and interventions by the public force,” according to the same source.

The mostly Egyptian traffickers who met at a cafe called Cleopatra hid the drugs in pots, flower beds or bushes near their post next to the Flaminio cemetery, according to police.

At night they transferred their activities to a nearby train station and also sold drugs in a butcher shop.. According to the researchers, the group earned up to 20,000 euros a day thanks to this traffic.

The Flaminio Cemetery, which stretches over 140 hectares north of Rome, is the largest in Italy.