The police hunt continues throughout northern Sardinia and in the province of Nuoro for the armed commando who yesterday evening attacked the vault of the Mondialpol surveillance institute in Caniga, on the outskirts of Sassari, shooting at eye level at a The carabinieri car, which was riddled with bullets, and against a traffic police patrol, rushed to the scene.
The investigations, conducted by the Flying Squad of the Sassari police headquarters, are trying to reconstruct the gang’s movements before and after the robbery.
Sassari, the Kalashnikov assault on the Mondialpol vault: shots fired at the police
Hunting for bandits
At the moment it is known that the commando was made up of about twenty bandits armed with Kalashnikovs, dressed in black and wearing bulletproof vests. Shortly before 8:30 pm they brought an excavator up to the fence wall of the Mondialpol headquarters in Caniga, and using the length of the mechanical vehicle’s arm they tore off a grille on the facade and broke through the wall of the building.
Excavator shot
While two criminals operated the mechanical vehicle, at least six using a ladder climbed over the fence and entered the Mondialpol headquarters, shooting into the air to scare the security guards. Several shots were also fired against the surveillance sentry box and the agent inside was saved thanks to the bulletproof glass.
The bandits took 5 or 6 bags containing money, probably money destined for the payment of pensions in a few days: the amount of the loot has not yet been quantified. The bags were taken out with the arm of the excavator and loaded onto a white Fiat Ducato van, with which the gang fled in the direction of Cagliari.
Police intervention
While the robbery was in progress, a carabinieri patrol and a traffic police patrol, from opposite directions, reached the Mondialpol headquarters and the bandits did not hesitate to riddle the cars with bullets, shooting at eye level.
The traffic block
Other members of the commando, estimated to be at least ten, blocked all the main access roads to the Caniga area, setting cars on fire and strewing the asphalt with nails. In this way they delayed the arrival of the police and covered their escape.
Half successful shot
The commando managed to seize “only a part of the cash present in the building and not the contents of the vault – the armored room, which constitutes the heart of the building – which was not stormed”. This was specified by Mondialpol itself in a note in which it is said that “the security systems have generally held up to the violence of the attack”.
“Despite the use of motorized mechanical means, Kalashnikov-type weapons, bulletproof vests and an organization that was meticulously organized, the criminal action was contained thanks to the promptness of our personnel who, even under pressure from enemy fire and guerrilla warfare, managed to implement emergency procedures specifically designed to deal with extraordinary situations such as the one on Friday evening,” the company said.
“Our procedures, refined over the course of almost one hundred years of history, and the preparation of our staff who every year participate in thousands of hours of training between compulsory and additional courses have played a fundamental role in containing the damage – we read again in the press release – The next few hours will be fundamental to reconstruct exactly what happened, we are collaborating with the authorities to provide all possible support to the investigations”. According to what we have learned, in fact, the leaders of Mondialpol have been in Sassari since this morning for an inspection of the Caniga headquarters: the extent of the loot will also be quantified in the next few hours.
Extraordinary meeting of the Provincial Committee for Public Order and Safety on Thursday
An extraordinary meeting of the Provincial Committee for Public Order and Safety will be held next Thursday at the Prefecture in Sassari. Prefect Grazia La Fauci announced this to the Mayor of Sassari, Giuseppe Mascia, who this morning expressed the city’s concern over the incident.
