Booming Business

[Tim]

LOCATION: Port of Gioia Tauro
DATE: 30th of September, 1997
TIME: 02:21, UTC+02:00

Giustiniano Voci was sitting behind a large screen which showed the X-Ray of 20 foot containers that just came into the port from a ship that had departed Mexico 18 days ago. He checked the containers rigorously, having been warned that his colleague had found a shipment of guns from Mexico a few weeks ago. Giustiniano had a simple life, he worked for customs in Italy's largest ports and had recently married the love of his life, everything was going well.

As he was checking a container his phone rang, his wife was calling him. She should be asleep by now, so he quickly picked up, hoping it wouldn't be something bad. "Hello," a manly voice said on the other side.

Giustiniano panicked, who was this man, what had he done to his wife, or how did he get the phone? He wanted to ask all of this, but before he could say "Who-" he was cut off by the man on the other side of the line. "You will be checking containers MEX#9472 and MEX#9473, correct?" Giustiniano was afraid, but he realized that listening to the man would be the safest thing to do for him, and for his wife. "Correct."

"They contain metal parts for construction. Understood?" Gisutiniano nodded, he would do anything to ensure the safety of his wife, and even though he had not been threatened yet, they both understood what was going on. "UNDERSTOOD?" the man yelled, and Giustiniano quickly responded "Yes! Yes."

"Good. You will find 20 thousand US dollars in locker 547 once we have confirmed the goods were cleared, and if we don't..." the man went silent, and soon Giustiniano heard the sound of a gunshot, and the call was ended leaving Giustiniano in shock.

A colleague of his walked in, checking as he had been taking very long to check this last container. "Are you alright?" the colleague asked, seeing Giustiniano put away his phone. "Yes.. Yes.. It's just my wife, she can't sleep.. It's fine..." his voice showed that he was clearly in distress, and his colleague decided to offer him some help. "If you want I can check the rest so you can head out early?"
"No, no... It's fine! It's fine!" Giustiniano said, "Thank you but I want to finish my shit myself." The colleague wanted to help, but knew there was no arguing with Giustiniano and left the room, closing the door.

Giustiniano checked the next three containers, MEX#9471, which contained large bags which were registered as cement, he sent it to a more thorough inspection because it could contain drugs. He then checked MEX#9472 and saw what seemed to be automatic weapons, and quickly cleared it as the registered metal parts for construction, just like MEX#9473 which had almost the same contents.

A truck driver loaded containers MEX#9472 and MEX#9473 on his truck and checked the print outs that he had gotten, they were fully cleared from customs. He drove away from the terrain of the Port and called someone.
Meanwhile a colleague of Giustiniano got a text and left the dining hall for the locker room and placed a backpack with $20,000 in locker 547 and closed the combination lock, but left it on the correct combination so anyone could open it.

After checking 32 more containers Giustiniano was done. He called his wife as he walked towards the lockers, but to his surprise she told him that he had just been woken up by his call, and there had been nobody. He checked locker 547 and pulled on the combination lock, his eyes widened as he saw an open backpack with $20,000 in cash in it. He took the backpack and took his own bag from his locker and left the terrain to go home to his wife.

The truck was driven onto the provincial road which went straight through the forest where it stopped at parking lot for hikers in the forest which had no cameras. There the containers were opened and the guns were swapped out by metal for construction. The truck now loaded with the declared cargo drove to a construction site where it dropped off the cargo.


The five vans loaded with guns drove to different warehouses, all of which were controlled by the local locale of 'Ndrangheta. From these warehouses the guns would be sold throughout Europe.

 

[Tim]

LOCATION: Gioia Tauro
DATE: 31st of September, 1997
TIME: 10:31, UTC+02:00

Romeo Picco was tasked with delivering one of the shipments of guns to a gang in Oslo, Norway that was one of the main resellers of cocaine in Norway and Sweden. He had acquired a cab-over semi-trailer with crates, and three crates of cheap olive oil that was labelled as extra virgin olive oil. The guns of the shipment were transferred to the crates and were placed in the back of the truck. In front of this the three crates of olive oil were placed, two on top of each other and one next to that in such a way that the crates behind it were very difficult to reach and the one ground-level crate could be easily opened to show the declared olive oil.

Because of the difficulty of the long trip he was given $20,000 for any required briberies and a silenced Beretta 92FS in case he was pulled aside on a quiet road later in the night. He departed that day with all documentation needed and ended up in Milan after 11 hours of driving.

1 October Drove from Milan, Italy to Hannover, Germany in 11 hours.
2 October Drove from Hannover, Germany to Hirtshals, Denmark, where he took the 7 PM ferry to Kristiansand.

LOCATION: Kristiansand, Norway Zak
DATE: 3rd of October, 1997
TIME: 04:31, UTC+02:00

After a comfortable stay in a cheap hotel room after 2 nights in his cab Romeo Picco was well rested and ready for the final drive to Oslo. He had gotten up so early to try and arrive in Oslo before sunrise. He got into his truck and drove onto the E18 towards Oslo. It was still very early in the morning, the road was almost empty beside a few trucks. Everything was pitch dark except for the road which was lit in a yellow gloom from the lights along the road and the bright white and red flash from the headlights of the trucks.

 

[Zak]

Grimstad, Norway​

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It was early morning at Grimstad Police Station which Constable Bjørn Juel and Inspector Åse Thornes had been assigned together for their nine hour shift. The morning consisted of their briefing where they had been issued with everything they would have needed for the shift, they exited to the car pool and picked up their ride for the day and inserted their MP5's into the vehicle and made sure that all checks would be completed before leaving for the morning. Each officer was equipped with a loaded Glock 17 with three extra magazines and also wore a kevlar vest over their uniforms.

Minutes later, they had made their way onto the E18 highway and was making their way towards the town of Nedenes when they joined the highway behind the truck as they began tailing it whilst on the highway, Inspector Thornes, behind the wheel of the patrol car decided to pull the vehicle over and flicked on the sirens and lights which lit up behind the Italian truck and filled the roads as it remained pitch dark and awaited for the truck to pull over.

Tim

 

[Tim]

LOCATION: E18 Highway, Norway Zak
DATE: 3rd of October, 1997
TIME: 05:07, UTC+01:00

Romeo had gotten worried as he saw the police vehicle enter the highway behind him, but his rational mind quickly convinced him that it was just a routine patrol. But within minutes he was proven wrong as he heard the sirens turn on and saw the blue and red light flickering in his mirror. "Porca miseria!" he shouted before pulling over to the side of the road. He quickly took his gun out of his jacket and put it in an old paper bag of German McDonalds that was on the passenger seat and crumbled it shut before opening his door and leaning out to see the cops, awaiting any instructions.

 

[Tim]

Zak

 

[Zak]

​

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The police vehicle pulled in behind the suspect vehicle, stepping out and approaching the passenger side of the car towards the window was Inspector Åse Thornes who knocked on the window as she took in her surroundings of the vehicle to make sure that the driver was not carrying anything illegal. The Inspector spoke in a thick Norwegian accent with broken English, it wasn't common for non-city based officers to speak English.

"Norwegian Police, the purpose of uh.... your journey today?"

Meanwhile, in the patrol vehicle, the Constable used the time to radio command and got an update on the vehicle through its number plate, would anything come back?

Tim

 

[Tim]

LOCATION: E18 Highway, Norway Zak
DATE: 3rd of October, 1997
TIME: 05:21, UTC+01:00

Romeo seemed dumbfounded by the question, he was expecting a lot but a simple purpose of your journey wasn't that. His face looked visually confused as he pointed to the large container his truck was carrying, "Transporting?" he said in broken English with a clear Italian accent. The Italian knew enough English to explain everything, but he had never lost that distinct Italian tone that came with it.

The license plate was fully clear, it was registered under a small shipping company and the Mafia had bought it, but never did the paperwork so they only operated it de facto.

"I bring oliva oil to small Italian restaurant Oslo," he further explained, having proper papers in the cab if need be. He was still sitting in the cab and was awaiting if the cops would want him to get out. If they tried to look inside the rear of the truck it was locked with a padlock of which he had the key on him.

Zak​