OPERATION IN ROME CARRIED OUT BY THE DIA AND COORDINATED BY THE PUBLIC PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE IN ROME: DISMANTLING OF A CRIME GROUP RESPONSIBLE FOR RECEIVING STOLEN PROPERTY AND CRIMES AGAINST PROPERTY

The Direzione Investigativa Antimafia carried out, by order of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Rome, a pre-trail detention order issued by the preliminary investigating judge (G.I.P.) at the court in Rome against 8 persons (Italian and foreign nationals) severely suspected of belonging to a crime group operating in Rome and in the provinces of Foggia, Terni, Frosinone, Latina, L’Aquila and Viterbo.

Specifically, the pre-trial arrest order was issued within operation “Shpirti”, based on the investigations carried out between November 2019 and March 2020, which gathered serious clues against 5 Albanian nationals, 2 Italian nationals and 1 Macedonian national as to the crime of receiving valuables, gold bars and watches of great value, which were stolen as a result of a series of burglaries in luxury flats.

The investigations reconstructed the “modus operandi” of each theft (mostly at night after having observed the targets reported by third persons acting as “moles”) and the channels used to receive and sale the stolen property in the hinterland of Rome.

Moreover, investigations also highlighted and documented several drug sales (marijuana and cocaine) in Rome and Terni as well as a marijuana plantation inside the Natural Reserve of Nazzano Romano.

Operation “Shpirti” is the follow-up of in-depth investigations carried out by the Direzione Distrettuale Antimafia and the DIA in Bari into the international drug trafficking from Albania to Apulia.

The pre-trial detention orders issued by the G.I.P. were carried out in Rome, in the districts of Giardinetti, Ponte di Nona, Borghesiana and Tor Bella Monaca (a district with a high criminal population density) as well as in Terni by the Direzione Investigativa Antimafia with the support of other Law Enforcement Agencies and the International Police Cooperation Service (S.C.I.P).

Several items of gold and silver, probably stolen, 1.2 kg of drugs type cocaine and marijuana and over 15 thousand euros in cash were recovered.

It is worth mentioning that the proceeding is still at the preliminary investigation stage and that after this pre-trial arrest, the suspects will be subject to the interview and cross-examination in the presence of their defense lawyers.  Their possible guilt as to the charges must be ascertained during the adversarial stage of the trial.