Law enforcement activities against international drugs trafficking, money laundering and organised crime were powerfully enhanced by the so-called "Green Ice" operation that led to the eradication of a well established drugs traffickers' network and of several organisations involved in money laundering.
The "Green Ice" operation developed in Italy thanks to the experience acquired in the course of similar investigations and to the innovative intelligence techniques adopted.
Such efficient law enforcement means were initially developed following the introduction of a few amendments to the criminal and criminal procedure codes for crimes related to drugs, extortions and money laundering and according to the provisions of article 12 quater of the law n. 306 of 1992.
According to this law, under cover agents of the Criminal Police can infiltrate criminal organisations, to simulate the purchase of drugs, to delay any order for custody and seizure and to act as true "launderers".
It is known the international drug trafficking may be fought in three different ways:
A. by detecting and seizing drug stocks;
B. by detecting and destroying drug cultivations;
C. by tracking down the financing channels of drug trafficking - and then seizing the capital.
Solution A is the most common, although police forces only manage to seize a maximum of 5-10% of all drugs in circulation. Drug traffickers are fully aware of that and like any other entrepreneur, they include the risk of possible seizures and related legal expenses for the arrested couriers in their market price.
Solution B is difficult to implement since opium and coca cultivations are located in countries that would not willingly accept their destruction, because it would undermine the economy of entire regions living off such cultivations.
Solution C is the most innovative one: detecting money flows, current accounts where dollars from drug trafficking are deposited, and people re-investing them, seriously threatens criminal organisations whose power is based on violence as well as on wealth.
In the "Green Ice" operation we were confronted with a powerful Colombian organisation, the Cali and Pereira cartels which introduced hundreds and hundreds of kilograms of cocaine into Europe every month. The drug was sold to groups of traffickers who distributed it in the various European countries. Profits from the sales were in local currency, i.e. in Italy drug traffickers received liras from the sales of cocaine, in France, French francs in Spain pesetas and so on.
All that cash was then to be changed in dollars and brought back to Colombia to purchase more stocks of cocaine to be marketed later, and to invest in other, even legal, activities.
Several intelligence sources, both in our Service and in the american D.E.A. had pointed to the difficulties encountered by Colombian drug traffickers' organisations in transferring income from their illegal activities from Europe to America. Rumour was that, following restrictions adopted by anti-laundering regulations, obliging banks to communicate to the Italian Exchange Office any suspicious or involving more than twenty million lira operations, huge sums were blocked both in Italy and Spain waiting to be transferred to America.
The Italian D.I.A. office, in agreement with the Central Operational Service of the State Police and with the Anti-Drug department, proposed to SISDe the creation of financial import-export companies to launder money.
The proposal was considered with interest, since it allowed to follow-up information already partly in the hands of the Service and to verify, in case of success, the existence of a connection between "Cosa Nostra" and the Colombian cartels, revealed by some "Collaboratori di Giustizia"' or collaborating with justice.
Obviously, the major problem was to procure "customers" to the cover-up company, but in this respect D.E.A. officials were confident that their infiltrated agents and their information sources would "advertise" our company in Colombia, in order to start contacts. Once the operation was running, problems aroused as to its practical implementation:
a. how to set up a limited company that would prove reliable in case of controls by drug traffickers and that would not appear as a front company.
To solve this first problem, the idea was to take over an existing company, in order to have a "past history". This solution was later discarded, since it could have created future problems with any creditors or debts the company might have run into, before being taken over. A new company was then created, having as founding members two D.I.A. cover-up agents and an official of the Service who was also to be appointed Managing Director.
b. The Italian law forbids the use of cover-up documents by Services' agents.
As I said earlier the Managing Director belonged to the Service and, since he could not use cover-up documents, he had to use his full name. Several precautions were therefore adopted, to protect his identity: first of all his residence was transferred to another city, his domicile was established at the company's headquarters, the apartment where he lived was registered under someone else's name. A car was then leased for him, and the contract was registered under the company's name; he was also asked to close down his bank current account, in order to make himself untraceable.
c. The company headquarters.
To avoid unnecessary expenses and especially neighbours' curiosity, a office was rented from a "service company" that lets equipped offices with a centralised answering service.
This choice had been made because an investigation had revealed this to be the favourite arrangement for anyone who launders money. In a building hosting hundreds of companies dealing with dissimilar business, it is much easier to remain unnoticed.
The office was immediately fitted with microcameras and microphones, in order to ensure audio and video recording at any time.
Besides, to justify the fact that the company had an office, incoming and outgoing mail was organised, subscriptions were made to economic magazines and newspapers, a secretary was hired by SISDe, to ensure a presence on the spot.
Lastly a bank current account was opened, registered under the company's name, on which laundering operations were made possible.
At this stage, everything was ready for the operation to start.
D.E.A. through his cover-up agents and sources involved in "Green Ice" began to inform Colombian cartels of the existence of the Roman company and supply them with telephone numbers.
It was March 1992 and only two months had elapsed from the time when the operation was first devised.
In June of that same year the first laundering requests were put forward by Colombian groups through two major criminal organisations in close contact with our most dangerous Mafia associations operating in Italy: "Cosa Nostra", "'Ndrangheta" and "Camorra" .
After informing the competent judicial authority, a total of ten controlled deliveries of money were made for a total of eight billion lire. Initially only moderate sums of money were delivered since the organisation wished to test the reliability of its counterpart, but later on, having acknowledged our professional skill, they began to trust us and many of the initial precautions were abandoned.
The first two money deliveries were carried out on the street: a gentleman came to us and said: "In the bonnet of my car there are two bags of rubbish, take them! " and without waiting for us to collect them he vanished, after giving us the bank current account number in the United States where he wanted the money to be transferred, after being changed into dollars, of course.
Laundering is not free of charge, it has a cost and therefore our company also drew a profit from it equal to 8% of the laundered money.
The Italian law, unlike the United States law, forbids the use of such money by the Judicial Police or by the Services. The sums to launder were therefore transferred to D.E.A. accounts in the United States and after deducting the commissions, the remainder was deposited in the drug traffickers' current accounts.
Other controlled deliveries were made to our companies' headquarters: a Dutch woman, MARTENS Bettien, used to come by a taxi and leave a bag full of money, which was hardly ever counted: as time went by, we became quite familiar with each other, to the point that we gave her a mobile phone and let her a flat.
We were therefore in a position to control all her movements, and in September the whole scenario where the woman acted became quite clear to us and we were able to acquire the evidence of her contacts both with Mafiosi in Palermo and with the Cali and Pereira leaders.
At the same time we were able to detect drug traffickers' current accounts in the United States.
Thanks to the skill of those who routinely dealt with the woman, we were able to bring to Italy the person, who according to the D.E.A., was responsible on a world level for drug trafficking and laundering activities for the cartel, i.e. OSPINA CEDIEL VARGAS Orlando, along with the person responsible for Europe, VILLAQUIRAN Pedro Felipe.
OSPINA came to our company's headquarters and proposed to intensify the "business", offering cocaine stocks: of course, everything was audio and video recorded and became a source of evidence for the trial.
To show us his power, the day before his arrest, he was about to dispatch 300 kg of cocaine, to our company in Italy. The drug was seized at Cartagena (Colombia).
The operation was simultaneously triggered in several countries such as Great Britain, Spain, France, Canada, Colombia and United States, and allowed us to set a hard blow to Colombian cartels and to reveal Italian contacts with Mafia families involved in cocaine trafficking and money laundering.
The results achieved in Italy may be thus summarised:

- in Italy 48 arrests were made (of which 4 abroad, upon restrictive provision by the Italian Judicial Authorities);
- several criminal organisations were disrupted, some of which imported huge amounts of drugs from Colombia to Italy and simultaneously ran a complex circuit of money laundering;
- the possibility of some drug trafficking leading figures collaborating with the Italian authorities was successfully explored. It was therefore possible to record the statements of one of the defendants, the Dutch woman MARTENS Bettien, who reconstructed for Italian investigators the current set-up of Colombian cartels the international routes of drug trafficking and money laundering, thus making it possible to identify another group of 136 international drug traffickers, all residing abroad out of which only 3 were arrested during the "Green Ice" operation and imprisoned in Italy;
- a shipment of more than 550 kilograms of cocaine was detected, which had been delivered by Colombian cartels' drug traffickers and representatives of organised crime in Palermo and in Rome and all those responsible for the illegal traffic were arrested;
- thanks to cover up activities throughout Italy, 300 kg of cocaine directed to Rome were seized in Colombia.
In the above-mentioned operation, along with SISDe staff, 30 investigators of the Central Operational Service of the State Police dealt with numberless interception, observation and shadowing services, performed controlled deliveries and related cover activities.
For the sake of completeness, we hereunder report a short summary of the investigative activities carried out.
Wire tapping and eavesdropping:
Milan:
- n. 24 fixed telephone lines for a total of 44,000 hours of listening;
- n. 2 premises , for a total of l,200 hours of listening;
- for a period of eight months the telephone traffic of n. 8 fixed telephone lines and n. 8 cellular telephones was analysed.
Rome:
- n. 6 fixed telephone lines for a total of 17,280 hours of listening;
- n. 2 premises for a total of 3,000 hours of listening;
- n. 1 mobile telephone for a total of 1,400 hours.
Naples:
- n. 8 fixed telephone lines for a total of 40,000 hours of listening.
Palermo:
- n. 3 fixed telephone lines for a total of 8,500 hours of listening;
- n. 1 cellular telephone for a total of 1,480 hours.
Controlled deliveries
Milan:
- two controlled deliveries were made for about two billion lire.
Rome:
- ten controlled deliveries were made, for a total of eight billion lire.
A total of 52 people arrested.
Seizure of drugs, real estate, and personal property
a. About 300 kg of cocaine destined to the Italian market, seized in the port of Cartagena (Colombia).
b. Several kilograms of cocaine seized in Rome, in the house of one of the people arrested.
c. Cash for over ten billion lire (of which $ 245,000 in a Swiss banks).
d. Upon decision of the Italian Judicial Authority, l.9 billion lira were "frozen" in a Swiss bank, before being seized.
e. Bonds for 1.5 billion lire.
f. Jewels for about one billion lire.
g. Luxury cars.
h. Trading companies both in Rome and Palermo.