Approximately 80 men were employed in Cerignola in the executive phase, belonging to the Foggia Flying Squad and other Flying Squads made available by the central operational service of the Central Anti-Crime Directorate of the Public Security Department, the Cerignola police station, the Crime Prevention departments , to the forensic police and to the state police dog handlers.
They would have manufactured explosive devices comparable to weapons of war given the destructive offensive scope. These handmade artefacts, called “marmots”, loaded at the end with explosive material, would have been used to commit a series of thefts from ATMs and ATMs. The gang, made up of eight people, was captured today by the police, who carried out an arrest order issued by the Foggia prosecutor’s office. The suspects are accused of criminal conspiracy aimed at committing aggravated thefts from ATMs and ATMs, robberies and thefts from commercial establishments, possession of weapons and manufacturing of weapons. Approximately 80 men were employed in Cerignola in the executive phase, belonging to the Foggia Flying Squad and other Flying Squads made available by the central operational service of the Central Anti-Crime Directorate of the Public Security Department, the Cerignola police station, the Crime Prevention departments , to the forensic police and to the state police dog handlers. The investigative activity, which began in February, began after the commission of some robberies carried out with the use of weapons, which “caused strong social alarm in the Cerignola community” and “caused considerable damage to various commercial establishments”, highlights a Note. The investigative investigations made it possible to identify the members of the group, who allegedly carried out the thefts from the ATMs of credit companies not only in the province of Foggia but also in other locations in Basilicata, Campania and Abruzzo. The suspects – this is the gang’s modus operandi – before acting carefully studied the areas of interest, the routes to follow, the escape routes and the positioning of the video surveillance cameras. According to what emerged, they used powerful and fast cars, often stolen or rented, to escape from the site of the raid as quickly as possible. The goods stolen from the shops, in particular scratch cards and tobacco, were resold. As regards the thefts from ATMs, however, the investigations made it possible to reconstruct how the subjects, with distorted faces and armed, used homemade explosive devices (the so-called marmots) to access the money deposit, also causing considerable damage to buildings. After taking possession of the money, in order not to be reached by the police forces, the suspects allegedly used spiked bands which they threw to the ground, “jeopardizing the safety of the policemen who would have had to chase them”, it is highlighted. During the investigation, several rudimentary devices, wigs, burglary tools and approximately 11 kilos of explosives were seized. The stolen cars were recovered and returned to their rightful owners.
