Sassari They went into action shortly after 8:00 p.m. and in less than half an hour they managed to put into action – shooting wildly – a plan that had been planned, perhaps for years. There were at least twenty men in the armed and unscrupulous commando that yesterday evening before sunset attacked the Caniga headquarters of the Mondialpol security company, a few meters from the civil motorization, on the outskirts of Sassari.
The criminals, as had already happened in February 2016, broke into the vault, and this time too they took away several million euros, clearing their way with Kalashnikovs and also shooting at a police car that arrived a few minutes later on the scene. The commando’s action was coordinated and studied in great detail: while part of the gang entered the vault, others blocked all the main access routes. To access the armored room, the criminals broke down the walls of the building with an excavator, which they had brought to the site on an articulated lorry, climbing over the perimeter wall thanks to the vehicle’s very long mechanical arm. With the same arm wrestling – guided with surgical precision by one of the bandits – they then transported out of the Mondialpol headquarters about ten bags containing the money intended to pay pensions in the coming days. Once inside the premises, even using a ladder, the robbers – dressed in black overalls and balaclavas and bulletproof vests – fired Kalashnikovs into the air to scare the security guards, then ran away, taking some bags of money, loaded onto a white Fiat Ducato van, with which they then fled. To scare the security guards, they shot towards the sentry box, but fortunately no one was injured. An inferno of fire and fear that lasted more than half an hour with the city still out shopping in the industrial area of Predda Niedda and many people leaving their workplaces to return home. In a few moments, chaos broke out in almost every entrance to the city, which remained paralyzed for several minutes by the robbery with difficulty. To cover their escape, the bandits strewn the surrounding streets of the Caniga area with nails and set fire to some cars to create chaos and confuse the police. To get away from the robbery area, the commando members took a road in the wrong direction and when they found themselves in front of a patrol of the Carabinieri radiomobile they did not hesitate to open fire. Shooting at chest height, to kill, but fortunately the soldiers also managed to save themselves. Then, after setting fire to another car, they managed to take the state road 131 towards Cagliari, disappearing without a trace. Dozens of law enforcement officers rushed to Caniga. The magistrate on duty, deputy prosecutor Elena Succu, arrived on the scene shortly after, together with the provincial commander of the Carabinieri, Colonel Massimiliano Pricchiazzi. The Carabinieri and police immediately began investigations. A helicopter of the Arma took off immediately and flew at low altitude for some time over the exit routes of the city. The manhunt continued throughout the night with hundreds of men in the field. The anti-robbery plan was triggered with roadblocks on the main roads of Sassari and Nuoro.
