Perugia, a gang of thieves dedicated to apartment thefts between Assisi, Arezzo and Siena defeated

Perugia, the State Police has implemented a precautionary order issued by the investigating judge at the Court of Perugia against eight subjects, held responsible, in various capacities, for criminal association aimed at the commission of home burglaries, perpetrated in the Assisi area and even in the neighboring provinces of Arezzo and Siena.

The investigations carried out by the PS Commissariat of Assisi, coordinated by the Public Prosecutor's Office at the Court of Perugia, also supported by technical activities, have made it possible to reconstruct the structure of a criminal association, well structured and organized, dedicated to the commission of crimes against the heritage, made up of subjects linked to each other by ties of kinship or affinity, all living in the same area of ​​Assisi.

The suspects, sixteen in total, all already known to the FFOO due to their numerous police records for crimes against property, are Italian men and women who live in the Assisi and Cannara area.

To be part of this association, recognized by the Judicial Authority as a real criminal association, both men and women, bound by kinship ties, with an organizational structure well defined in its tasks, with well-defined logistical bases and capable, given the recognized criminal profile, to alternate roles and deal with crisis situations making use of the contribution of all participants.

A true family consortium that has been able to equip itself over time with an increasingly refined criminal program, destined to project itself over time, to remodel itself according to needs. Active for years in the area, over time it has sown terror and insecurity among the inhabitants of the surrounding areas, especially the more isolated ones.

The agents of the Assisi Police Department took care of breaking the partnership thanks to technical activities but above all by resorting to more traditional investigative methods, such as surveillance observation services, shadowing and above all by resorting to the precious information assets.

Over the course of more than a year, the police managed to arrest some of the members of the gang in flagrante delicto immediately after committing the crime, other times they managed to recover the stolen goods and return them to the rightful owners who had also been robbed of their most cherished memories.

The 6 women in the group are also unscrupulous, shrewd and astute, the youngest aged 22 and the oldest aged 40. Certainly not a secondary role. Some of them were dedicated to the physical carrying out of thefts but were specialized in thefts and home thefts which they perpetrated by bypassing the poor landladies, specially chosen to be alone and elderly, passing themselves off as sellers of various items or in need of toilet facilities.

Other women had logistical tasks: there were those who lent themselves to having the cars registered in their names that would be used to commit the thefts, those who transported the stolen goods out of the region to be placed and those who instead had the task of looking after the valuable objects after they had been stolen and taken to the gang's men.

The men of the gang are brutal and unscrupulous, with a notable criminal profile. This is demonstrated by the fact that some of them managed to carry out their criminal plan even when subjected to a regime of restriction of personal freedom. Their plan was well structured and experienced no setbacks, except during the lock down period. Ruthless and dangerous, aboard specially chosen large-engined cars they faced and eventually resisted pursuits and blockade attempts by the police.

And it was precisely in one of these circumstances, at the end of a very dangerous chase, that a car in service was damaged because the thieves fleeing after having committed a theft did not stop by forcing the block, willing to do anything to escape.

On that occasion the only one left inside the car was arrested: the injured driver.

Once discovered, the cars were quickly changed and false license plates were also used.

Real crime professionals. The inspections they carried out in choosing the homes on which to carry out the robbery were long and detailed: all sufficiently isolated, reachable via dirt roads with poor surveillance systems and control of the owners' habits.

During the raids, the phones were purposely kept turned off so as not to give any indication of their presence at the location of the thefts, demonstrating their profound knowledge of investigation techniques.

The highly professional profile of the criminal organization is also demonstrated by the identification of two real logistical bases, on the outskirts of Assisi, where the members of the gang met before leaving, taking the designated cars, distributing the "tools" of the work, such as poles, sticks, crowbars, gloves and other clothing for camouflage.

In addition to actively participating in the commission of the thefts, there were those who, under house arrest, provided their homes as a logistical base to the perpetrators and monitored the operations; those who acted as couriers for the car in which the accomplices were traveling after having perpetrated the thefts; who instead had the task of looking after the cars used for the commission of the thefts, loading and unloading the burglary tools, washing them and, if necessary, thanks to a workshop in the industrial area of ​​Bastia Umbra, also changing their colour; who finally acted as lookout when the vehicles returned to the area.

Thanks to the services carried out by the police officers, the arrests made over time and the stolen goods recovered and immediately returned to the owners, it was possible for the Prosecutor who coordinated the investigations to define an important accusatory system and accuse the suspects of the crime of association for crime.

The investigating judge considered that there was a risk of recurrence of crimes, in consideration of the plurality of crimes committed, of the organizational organizational methods highlighted, underlining how the one examined was not just a mere criminal company but rather a cohesive family group dedicated to the commission of crimes against assets in order to obtain sustenance.

This morning the agents of the Assisi Police Department, of the local Flying Squad, with the help of personnel from the Umbria Marche Crime Prevention Department, implemented the aforementioned precautionary measures, thus putting an end to the uninterrupted series of thefts in the area.

Furthermore, on the directive of the Public Prosecutor's Office of Perugia, investigations were carried out with the help of the Guardia di Finanza, from which it emerged that 12 of the 16 suspects benefit from citizenship income.