Over 11,500 cannabis plants were seized in three separate operations conducted in recent days by the Carabinieri in Northern Sardinia. The checks focused on the countryside of Telti, Bono, and Alà dei Sardi: the officers identified illegal grows thanks to the support of the 10th Carabinieri Helicopter Unit in Olbia and the Sardinian Hunters Helicopter Squadron.
The largest cultivation was located in the Telti countryside: 10,853 Cannabis indica plants of various sizes, along with a complex irrigation system and other cultivation materials. The plantation was discovered during an overflight by the 10th Carabinieri Helicopter Unit from Olbia. Subsequent investigations allowed the precise location of the area and the seizure of the cultivation, based on a decree issued by the Tempio Pausania Public Prosecutor's Office. After the seizure, the plants were uprooted, shredded, and disposed of. Staff from the Forestas regional agency also participated in the operation, providing the necessary technical support for the destruction of the cultivation.
Another plantation was discovered in the Bono countryside. Carabinieri officers found 350 plants, spread across seventeen rows and already with numerous inflorescences. During the operation, officers caught a 57-year-old local farmer tending to his family's land. He was watering the plants using a homemade irrigation system. The plants were subjected to an initial test, which tested positive for THC, and were seized. The farmer was arrested and, by order of the judicial authorities, placed under house arrest pending a preliminary hearing before the investigating judge of the Nuoro Court. The operation was conducted by officers from the Operations and Mobile Unit of the Valledoria Company, with the support of the Carabinieri Helicopter Squadron "Cacciatori di Sardegna" from Abbasanta and the Bono Station.
The third operation took place in the rural area of Alà dei Sardi, in the Sa Serra de Battau area. This time, too, the crop was spotted from the air, during a flyover by the 10th Carabinieri Helicopter Unit from Olbia. Many of the plants had reached a height of approximately two and a half meters and were fed by a drip irrigation system consisting of water tanks and hundreds of meters of piping. The crop was eradicated and all the plants were destroyed.
