The suitcase containing the cocaine was originally intended to be dropped from a light plane into Baratili San Pietro, a small town of about 1,200 people in Sardinia, waiting for drug dealers on the ground.
Instead, it fell on the roof of a family and smashed a solar panel along the way.
The shocked owner heard a loud noise and immediately called the police. The police found a black suitcase on the roof containing 8.5 kg of pure cocaine, worth more than 9 million euros (7.7 million pounds). “Sardinia is raining cocaine,” Italian media reported on the March 28 incident and compared it with the tactics used by drug dealers in South America.
As part of the investigation code-named Fly Down, after four months of searches, the police arrested the pilot of the plane on Tuesday.
Their investigation revealed that the plane took off from a small airport in Rome, passed through the province of Nuoro in the northeastern part of Sardinia, and then flew west to Baratili San Pietro in the province of Oristano, where it Disappeared from the radar. Approximately 20 minutes.
Police said the plane disappeared from the radar minutes before the suitcase fell because it was flying too low. “Analysis of the GPS on the aircraft confirmed that the aircraft ran several laps in the area above the location during these 20 minutes. [where the suitcase] Was found,” the police said.
When the same plane made a stopover at Olbia Airport, surveillance cameras also captured its image.
With the help of testimony from airport staff and refueling records, the police were able to confirm that the pilot was Francesco Rizzo, 28, from Rome.
When Rizzo was arrested at Cagliari Elmas Airport after taking off from Germany, he was working as a pilot in a Hungarian company and letting the rich run around.
The police are still looking for traffickers who were supposed to have captured the hidden objects.
This incident officially became the first incident in Sardinia, but the police suspected that the drugs had fallen from the sky and had not been found above the island before.
