Cerignola called Andria, and Andria responded by sending out teams of car thieves: up to four thefts a day, especially at night, very quick and often commissioned. The police arrested 26 people at dawn, including 21 from Andria and 5 from Cerignola. 14 ended up in prison, 9 under house arrest, one under house arrest and two under reporting obligations. The arrests concern two alleged criminal groups from Andria specializing in car thefts led by Lovergine and Di Bisceglie. The investigations began at the end of October 2023, after a search of a subject from Andria in whose home spare parts of criminal origin were found, and ended in April of this year. 45 episodes contested following a complaint filed by the victims. The thefts took place in the BAT and in the North of Bari. The group led by Di Bisceglie was composed of 6 people, 9 members of the Lovergine group. They mainly targeted high-powered cars. Various techniques were used both for thefts and to elude the police: changes of clothing, disguised faces, radio transmitters to communicate, jammers, reclamation of stolen cars and those used for thefts. The modus operandi was divided into three phases: in the first there was the “operational battery”, or teams composed of three or four people who acted simultaneously at night to steal the vehicles; then there was the “ferryman”, the one who took the cars to Cerignola hiding them inside covered trucks, even making multiple trips in a single night; finally the team that received the car to dismantle it. Operations that lasted a maximum of 3 hours. For the investigators, Cerignola was always the source of the thefts, from there came specific requests for car parts, commissions that the suspects referred to on the phone as “pizzas”. The criminal groups interacted with each other, and when necessary they even exchanged components. For the investigations, the Flying Squad used several wiretaps. In one case, one of the suspects said, “I’ve been stealing cars all my life”. Many of them, even knowing they were under investigation, continued to steal cars to collect as much money as possible before their arrest, “as if prison were a calculated and necessary risk”, the investigators stressed. In addition to the wiretaps, images from public surveillance cameras and viral videos on the web were also fundamental. The turnover of the 26 arrested would have been at least around one and a half million euros in the time span of the investigations alone, not counting other unreported car thefts. For the investigators, this was just the beginning of a complex investigative activity that could expand even further.
