Police raid Termini station in 24-hour blitz

by Caroline Prosser (staff) | Friday, October 2nd, 2009

 

Overnight, police have reported dismissing some 150 vagrants from the Termini station area, including eight arrests. The zone has been pinpointed as a hotspot for pickpockets, miscreants, drunks and drug abusers and has been subject to a large-scale police operation since July 2008, that has seen 207 arrests.

150 people were sent away for  bothering travellers and passersby, including prostitutes, drug addicts and homeless.  The arrests included a 33-year-old Romanian, a 41-year-old Moldovian and a 41-year-old Moroccan, working as ‘pizzicati’ - racketters who demand payment in car parks upon the threat of violence. Two Italian pizzicati were also caught in the act of stealing letters and parcels from postboxes. Six Turkish men and two Romans were found in the possession of weapons including knives, scissors and wooden batons.       

Since the start of the operation, police investigating Termini and its surrounding areas - via Giolitti, Via Marsala and Piazza Cinquecento - including roads, gardens, car parks and bus stops have made arrests including bagsnatchers operating close to ticket vending machines and possessors of stolen vehicles.

Carabinieri sector chief Luigi De Simone added, “We have also secured the closure of several bars used as a meeting place for troublemakers”