DCSA
The Direzione Centrale per i Servizi Antidroga is a multiagency body of the Department of Public Security under the direction of the Chief of Police –Director General of Public Security. It implements the guidelines issued by the Minister of the Interior in the areas of coordination of law enforcement agencies, planning and management of the law enforcement services with the aim of preventing and combating illicit traffic in drugs and psychotropic substances. The organization of the Direzione Centrale is regulated by the Interministerial Decree of 15 June 1991. Its staff is composed of an equal number of law enforcement officers from the State Police, the Carabinieri and the Guardia di Finanza as well as civilian personnel of the Ministry of the Interior. The Director is a top-ranking officer from one of the three Italian law enforcement agencies and changes every three years on a rotation basis. In particular, the Direzione Centrale per i Servizi Antidroga, coordinates the info-operational activities of the law enforcement agencies involved in the fight against national and international drug trafficking, promoting new strategies and agreements with foreign counterparts through the Law Enforcement Attachés of the Direzione Centrale per i Servizi Antidroga posted to the sensitive areas and providing training to drug producing and transit countries.
BACKGROUND The present organization of the Direzione Centrale per i Servizi Antidroga dates back to the beginning of the nineties and is regulated by Article 1 of Law No. 16 of 15 January 1991. It inherited its duties, staff and equipment from the Central Antidrug Service, an office within Central Directorate of Criminal Police which once coordinated the fight against drugs by Law Enforcement Agencies according to Art 35 of Law No. 121 of 1 April 1981. Before that, on the basis of Article 7 of Law No. 685 of 22 December 1975, such duties had been carried out by the Central Office for the Direction and Coordination of the Law Enforcement Activities to Prevent and Combat the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs. Said Office was set up in 1976 and was composed of officers and officials of the former Directorate General of Public Security and of senior officers of the Carabinieri and Guardia di Finanza. After more than 40 years from its creation, DCSA is one of the oldest and most successful multiagency bodies within the Italian Law Enforcement Agencies.
The Director
Major General of Carabinieri Pierangelo Iannotti
He was born in Rufina (FI) on April 6, 1963, and from 1983 to 1987, he attended the 165th course of the Military Academy in Modena and the Carabinieri Officers’ School in Rome.
He holds degrees in “Jurisprudence” and “Internal and External Security Sciences,” and master’s degrees in “Strategic-Military International Studies,” “Strategic Sciences,” and “Public Management and Public Utility Communications.”
In the ranks of lieutenant and captain, he served as platoon and company commander at the 2nd Battalion of the Carabinieri Cadet Cadet School in Florence, commander of the Carabinieri Company’s Operational and Radiomobile Nucleus in Livorno, and later as commander of the Carabinieri Companies in Varallo Sesia (VC), Aversa (CE) and Milan Duomo (MI).
Upon completion of attending the 3rd Higher Course of Interforce Staff at the Centro Alti Studi per la Difesa in Rome, in the ranks of major and lieutenant colonel, he held, at the Carabinieri General Headquarters, the posts of chief of the “Internet and Intranet Communication Section,” chief of the “Armaments and Special Equipment Office,” and chief of the “Public Information Office.” As a colonel and brigadier general, he was chief “Press Office,” provincial Carabinieri commander in Palermo and, back at the General Command, chief “Ordering Office” and head of “III Department – Telematics.”
From September 11, 2020 to July 25, 2023, in the ranks of brigadier general and division, he commanded the Carabinieri Legion “Tuscany.”
Since July 27, 2023, he has been Central Director for Anti-Drug Services.
