The Provincial Police of Verbano Cusio Ossola has busted a criminal organization composed of poachers, who hunted wild fauna illegally and with illegally carried weapons, to then resell the meat or the "trophies" (such as deer antlers) to enthusiasts. All of this - investigators hypothesize - with a turnover of thousands of euros.

At the top of the organization are two cousins of Sardinian origin, aged 42 and 50, reported together with three Albanian associates, all resident on the shores of Lake Maggiore.

It was precisely from some residents of the Verbano area that reports of gunshots and fruit crates left in the fields and woods to feed and attract animals began. In addition, wounded animals were repeatedly sighted: deer, wild boars and roe deer, shot by hunters, who used "broken" ammunition, illegal because they often wound the animal without killing it, leaving it to die a slow death.

Following the reports, the Provincial Police officers began an investigation codenamed “Eyes in the Dark” because it was conducted not only with stakeouts but also with camera traps placed on trees.

In the end, the officers also managed, in addition to filming the poachers' movements, to catch two of them red-handed, after killing a crowned deer weighing 200 kg, which was about to be loaded onto a van. A disassembled 12-gauge double-barrelled shotgun was also found in a backpack.

The two were thus stopped and identified, together with their alleged accomplices, and then reported to the judicial authorities.

Investigations are now continuing to try to trace the buyers of the meat and trophies.

(Online Union)

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