Santo Stefano di Camastra, GRAVEYARD operation: copper thefts in cemeteries, three arrests and a residence order
In particular, the defendants were accused of committing 11 thefts, although not always in the same exact composition.
Santo Stefano di Camastra, GRAVEYARD operation: copper thefts in cemeteries, three arrests and a residence order
In the early hours of yesterday morning, personnel from the Santo Stefano di Camastra Carabinieri Company executed a precautionary order against a total of four subjects; in particular they have been reached by ordinance of the house arrest two subjects, both residents in S. Stefano di Camastra, father and son, as they were considered seriously suspected of multiple aggravated thefts committed in numerous cemeteries in the provinces of Messina and Palermo (specifically, the thefts had systematically targeted copper rainwater drainpipes, all removed from numerous noble chapels existing in those cemeteries); it was reached by an enforcement order of the obligation to reside in the municipality of residence of another person, resident in Santo Stefano di Camastra, also considered seriously suspected of such aggravated thefts; was reached by order of the house arrest another subject, resident in Palermo, considered seriously suspected of the crime of receiving such material.
Specifically, the facts at issue in the proceedings, as underlined by the investigating judge, Dr. Andrea THE SWORD in his precautionary order, they concerned “… the dense sequence of copper downpipe thefts (and in one case of cable reels, also in copper, stolen from the S. Stefano di Camastra railway station) perpetrated against numerous noble chapels located in the cemeteries of various Nebrodi and Madonie centres in the time frame included between the months of February and April 2024 by various means of the accused.”
In particular, the defendants were accused of having committed, although not always in the same exact composition, as many as 11 thefts perpetrated inside as many cemeteries and a single theft committed inside the FS station of Santo Stefano di Camastra, in a total time span of no more than two months. The cemeteries "focused" by the suspects, specifically, were the following:
- cemetery of Sant'Agata di Militello (ME), dated 25.2.2024;
- Cefalù cemetery (PA), at the end of February 2024;
- cemetery of Rocca di Capri Leone (ME), between 08.03.2024 and 10.03.2024;
- Capo d'Orlando cemetery (ME), in the first ten days of March,
- Pollina cemetery (PA), on 10.03.2024 and 13.03.2024
- cemetery of Santo Stefano di Camastra (ME), between 16.03.2024 and 18.03.2024;
- cemetery of Castelbuono (PA), between 28.03.2024 and 31.03.2024”;
- cemetery of Galati Mamertino (ME), dated 01.04.2024,
- Lascari cemetery (PA), between 02.04.2024 and 04.04.2024,
- cemetery of San Salvatore di Fitalia (ME), on 04.04.2024
- Brolo cemetery (ME), dated 08.04.2024.
Again according to what was highlighted by the investigating judge in his order, the criminal scheme, now well tested, consisted in identifying a strategic objective (a cemetery: ed.), isolated, without video surveillance systems, poorly lit, where it was possible to act undisturbed in the evening. And indeed, the geolocation data acquired allowed us to ascertain how the suspects always went to the municipal cemeteries in the time slot included between the 19.00 and the 24.00, remaining there for no more than two hours.
The suspects entered the cemetery areas, depending on the case, by climbing over the surrounding wall, or by using specially prepared ladders, in one case even cutting the metal fence and entering the area with a vehicle. Subsequently they were tearing off the copper drainpipes from the family chapels (in the order of several dozen at a time), they crumpled them up so that they could easily place them inside the cars used to transport the material (a Fiat Bravo or a Fiat Panda, the latter rented), they brought the vehicle close to the "booty thus processed", then proceeded to contact by telephone the person from Palermo investigated for the crime of receiving stolen goods, a city where they immediately went to deliver and monetize the stolen goods.
The messages sent from time to time to the Palermo subject are eloquent (“Tonino, I'll be with you in an hour, that's fine.?) to warn him of their arrival in Palermo; it then takes on an “iconic” and “plastically revealing” value of the object of the trade between the suspects, as noted by the investigating judge, the selfie sent to the Palermo subject by one of the suspects, while he was there, together with his accomplice, aboard a car literally packed with copper drainpipes, all carefully crumpled and stacked on the back seats of the vehicle.
The loot obtained consisted, from time to time, in the seizure of hundreds of linear metres of drainpipes, with a weight of several hundred kilograms of copper (up to 500 kilos at a time), for a value (and related damage) of several thousand euros for theft.
The investigations carried out by the Carabinieri Station of Santo Stefano di Camastra, consisting – in stakeouts, in the analysis of surveillance cameras located in some streets adjacent to the cemeteries, in the analysis of the historical traffic of the cell phones used by the suspects and in their geo-localization, in the analysis of Telepass traffic data (motorway transits), in the analysis of data from the satellite monitoring system (GPS) installed on one of the cars used – have allowed us to formulate a framework of the seriousness of the circumstantial evidence against the current suspects in relation to the crimes respectively charged to them.
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