Two police officials have been arrested in Italy in a corruption-related case which also involved two motorcycles.
The seizure of motocross bikes in the UK and France made headlines in 2022 for the quantity and frequency of the seizures. In Italy, it is because of the conduct of the officers seizing the bikes.
Only two motocross bikes were seized in this Italian case, but they were done so wrongly. Even though the bikes were circulating on the streets without licence plates or insurance, the officers failed to complete the necessary report paperwork for the seizures, Il Giorno reports.
Due to complaints by the families of the bikes’ original owners, the minutes of their arrest and detention were updated by the officers such that they no longer resembled reality.
Additionally, it was demanded of the original owners of the bikes that they be sold to people determined by the officers and at a price - lower than the market value - similarly determined.
The officers responsible for the seizures were in positions of power, hence they were able to pressure others into following in their disagreeable line. Maria Grazia Petrapertosa, 58, is the commander of the local police in Cassolnovo, and Luigi Critelli, 46, is her deputy. Their arrest came at the hands of the Italian Carabinieri, and at the time of writing (17 January 2023) they remain under house arrest.
One such person, Il Giorno reports, who tried to resist the pressure of Petrapertosa and Critelli - an agent who to refused to cancel fines of people related either socially or professionally to the commander and deputy - was transferred to a different municipal office where they were tasked with things not aligned with the reasons he was hired in the first place, and subject to verbal threats and physical pressure to the extent that they resorted to what Il Giorno only refers to as “psychotropic drugs.”
