The family background of Giorgia Meloni, set to become Italy's first female prime minister, is one of abandonment by her father, Francesco. When she was eleven, he left the family home and moved to the Canaries.
In September 1995, he was arrested by the Customs Surveillance Service in Mahon, Minorca. He was one of four people on a boat, Cool Star, on which were 1,500 kilos of hashish.
He was tried at the Provincial Court in Palma and sentenced to nine years.