Police raid homes of Milan riot suspects with city braced for more protests

(ANSA) - ROME, 23 OTT - The Italian state police's DIGOS special-operations division on Friday conducted raids to search the homes of approximately 100 people, including 51 minors, suspected of being involved in last weekend's shocking rioting in Milan. The searches were conducted in Arezzo, Bari, Bergamo, Bologna, Bolzano, Como, Florence, Genoa, Lodi, Naples, Pescara, Padua, Cremona, Verbania, Aosta, Monza, Varese, and Verona. Groups of youths swarming around shops and supermarkets, smashing windows and going on ransacking-and-looting rampages before quickly dispersing, caused around a billion euros in damage at the weekend, according to retail association Confcommercio. The youths also clashed with police, hurling stones, bottles and flares at them, injuring 14. Over 270 people were detained and 80% of them were minors. Thee youngest person identified as taking part in the riots is 11 years old, police have said. Videos capturing individuals during the unrest have gone viral on social media. Premier Giorgia Meloni's government has deployed 500 paratroopers in Milan to assist law-enforcement there amid fears of more protests and violence this weekend. Indeed, some shopkeepers in the city have said they intend to keep their shutters down this weekend. The government also passed a new security decree this week extending the authorities' power for the "preventive detention" of known or suspected troublemakers ahead of problematic demonstrations to minors and creating a new crime of violent participation in a demonstration, with fines of up to 20,000 euros and jail terms of up to five years Justice Minister Carlo Nordio said Thursday that the government also aims to expand juvenile detention facilities after the mass arrests of minors in rioting in Milan and other cities. Police in the southern province of Bari, meanwhile, on Friday staged a major operation to halt a plan for copy-cat looting there. The operation, coordinated by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate (DDA) and the Juvenile Prosecutor's Office, targeted "a large group of young and very young people" on suspicion of incitement to commit crimes aimed at destruction and looting for terrorist purposes, as well as possession of weapons, ammunition, and explosives. (ANSA).
Read article...