In the port of Genoa, officials from the Anti-Fraud Department of the Customs Agency of Monopolies of Genoa and the financiers of the Genoa Provincial Command seized over ten tons of industrial chemical product containing about 700 kilos of potassium permanganate, a substance used by organizations during the production of narcotics. Checking the goods in a container coming from the port of Durban, South Africa, investigators found about ten tons of CCP (Chem Control Pellet) 108, a mixture of oxide of aluminium, potassium permanganate, sodium carbonate and baking soda. Having well-founded suspicions about the lawfulness of the operation, the officials and financiers have asked for the technical-scientific support of the Agency's chemical laboratory of Customs and Monopolies which, through the analysis of the product, found a high percentage of permanganate in the mixture of potassium (equal to about 7% of the total). This substance, harmful to was easily extracted from the mixture by means of simple procedures, making it, in fact, usable for purposes Illicit. Precursors such as permanganate, in fact, are often used by drug traffickers as reagents, with the function of transforming a natural substance into a drug of abuse, in particular cocaine and heroin.

Specifying that these products, in order to be marketed both in their pure and mixed state must be traced by the competent bodies and, therefore, be escorted by the prior authorizations from the Ministry of Health, the Guardia di Finanza has announced that the importer of the products does not was in possession of this authorization.