Crackdown on criminal gang, arrests in Veneto and Tuscany
Suspects accused of thefts and robberies; carabinieri deployed in Vicenza and Pisa
Operation spanning Veneto and Tuscany: robbers from Malo villa arrested
Four people have been arrested by carabinieri in an operation conducted between Torrebelvicino (Vicenza), Pontedera and Pisa, believed to be responsible for the robbery committed during the night of 11 to 12 March 2025 at a villa in Malo, in the province of Vicenza. ANSA Cronaca reports.
Shortly before midnight, a squad of four individuals broke into the residence and assaulted the two spouses living there. The robbers tied the victims' wrists and ankles with telephone wires and shoelaces. The husband was also tortured with jets of ice-cold water. Under the threat of a scalpel pointed at the woman's face, the gang forced them to hand over the keys to the safes, stealing luxury watches, jewellery and precious stones worth 50,000 euros.
The investigation by the carabinieri of Vicenza and Schio reconstructed the squad's route starting from the Tuscan airport in Pisa, where the criminals had rented a car using forged Serbian driving licences and documents. Upon arrival in the Vicenza area, they had stolen number plates from a vehicle in Schio and applied them to the rental car. The cross-reference of satellite GPS traces, street video surveillance systems and telephone cell analysis made it possible to reconstruct the entire route. The RIS of Parma also identified the fingerprints left by two members of the group in the residence.
The investigation also identified the role of a fourth accomplice, a resident of Torrebelvicino, who acted as a "basista" (lookout/handler) by providing the gang with a refuge before and after the robbery.
During the course of the same investigation, the carabinieri determined that two of the suspects, together with two other Tuscan accomplices, entered a villa in Verona under judicial seizure on the evening of 18 March 2025, where three days earlier the mummified bodies of a couple had been found. An alarm raised by some citizens led to the intervention of law enforcement, forcing the bandits to flee on foot and abandon the burglary tools and the car—which belonged to the father of one of the suspects, who to create an alibi had reported it stolen to the emergency services that same evening.
On that occasion too, the Torrebelvicino basista intervened to shelter the fugitives whilst waiting for a relay car coming from Tuscany, which then took them back to Pisa.
Source: ANSA Cronaca