A ruthless criminal organization specializing in blowing up ATMs across Italy was dismantled at dawn this morning thanks to a massive anti-mafia operation. Carabinieri officers from the Cerignola Company executed a pre-trial detention order issued by the Foggia preliminary investigations judge at the request of the local Public Prosecutor's Office against seven individuals from the municipalities of Ordona and Orta Nova. Those arrested, aged between twenty and fifty-one, are part of a larger list of eighteen suspects. The charges brought by the magistrates, on various counts, are extremely serious: aggravated theft involving the use of explosives, violation of the law on weapons, receiving stolen goods, and money laundering.

This investigation builds on a previous investigation that, on January 26, had already led to the arrest of five suspects. The criminal group operated with paramilitary precision, traveling in high-powered cars stolen or rented in Cerignola. To burgle the safes of credit institutions, the criminals employed the dangerous "marmotta" technique, a homemade, high-explosive explosive device inserted into ATMs. The explosion allowed for the immediate recovery of the money but consistently resulted in the partial collapse or severe damage to the structures and buildings housing the branches. The organization operated according to a rigid division of logistical and operational duties, alternating specific roles among drivers of the fast cars, surveillance lookouts, dispatchers, and material executors of the bombings.

The Carabinieri have successfully attributed two other heists to the gang in recent months. The first occurred in January in Quarrata, in the province of Pistoia, while the second was attempted in March in Vallata, in the province of Avellino , netting a haul of approximately thirty thousand euros, in addition to devastating structural damage to banks. Immediately after the attack in Tuscany, two of the criminals were intercepted in a rental car with seventeen thousand euros in cash, partially burned by the flash of the explosion. Following the raid in Irpinia, the police tracked down the getaway car in Orta Nova, detaining two arrestees inside and seizing balaclavas, burglary tools, and deadly three-pronged nails used to neutralize the pursuing Gazelles. Electronic monitoring of movements allowed investigators to preemptively patrol the provinces of Fermo, Rieti, Avellino , Benevento, Lecce, Brindisi, and Taranto, managing to foil at least ten other attacks already planned by the commando.