Agribusiness Protection Command
of the Arma dei
Carabinieri
, Operation ‘Safe Grain’. Seizures of durum wheat outlaw proceed at the rate of 1,000 tons per month, 3 thousand tons in the first quarter of 2019. Relentless checks.
Operation ‘Safe Grain’, the 5 RACs in action
On 11.4.19, military personnel from the RAC (Carabinieri Agri-food Department) in Messina, alongside the Arma and the local ASL, seized 436 tons of wheat in the province of Caltanissetta. 90 thousand euros of outlawed stored wheat, including excrement and birds. Administrative fines of several thousand euros and criminal charges against the grain wholesaler.
The investigations conducted in Operation ‘Safe Grain’ show the repetition of a scenario of serious illegality that has already emerged in previous inspections. Failure to register warehouses with the health authority-aside from constituting a violation of the regulation underpinning the ‘Hygiene Package’-prevents food traceability. This is compounded by structural deficiencies in sanitation requirements.
Operations are carried out by the active military in the 5 RACs located throughout Italy (Turin, Parma, Rome, Salerno and Messina). As part of the extraordinary activities planned to strengthen controls in agribusiness. The current focus on the grain sector, between January and mid-April 2019, has enabled the branch’s operatives to seize 2,962 tons of grain.
