"Let's shoot! Let's shoot!": The rise of the Giugliano gang, caught after the shopping mall raid.

The arrest warrant issued by the North Naples Prosecutor's Office reveals the metamorphosis of a group of serial robbers. The heists costing a few hundred euros with box cutters, the youthful bravado noted by environmental investigators, and then the leap to military prowess with 9mm pistols. All the way up to the dramatic attack in Sant'Antimo, which left a shopkeeper just inches from death.

The end of the race and the criminal pact

An alliance formed on the streets of Giugliano in Campania and Villaricca, capable of weaving a web of robberies and terror across the provinces of Naples and Caserta in the space of just a few months. Five names are listed in black and white in the arrest warrant signed by the Public Prosecutor of the Naples North Court, Dr. Maria Carmen Quaranta: Vincenzo Bombace, Patrizio Di Nardo, Antonio Mariano, Alessandro Cante, and Antonio Palma.

The judicial investigation reveals a veritable criminal metamorphosis. What began as a gang of young men carrying out hit-and-run robberies in post offices, armed only with box cutters, transformed within a few months into a ruthless gang, equipped with functioning firearms and willing to shoot to kill. This escalation was marked by stolen cars, meticulously planned moves in front of surveillance cameras, and a boldness betrayed by one fatal mistake: talking too much on a scooter.

The original nucleus and the "speciality" of the Post Office

In the early stages of the investigation, investigators focused on the duo of Vincenzo Bombace (born in 2006) and Patrizio Di Nardo (born in 2007). The two moved with their faces covered by balaclavas and methodical precision. Their signature was an orange box cutter.

Their bloody debut: On February 18, 2026, they struck twice in Giugliano in Campania. First, they attacked the post office on Via Primo Maggio, terrorizing the cashiers with a knife and stealing €2.351,73. A few minutes later, outside the same office, they pushed and robbed a resident, Agostina Granata, at gunpoint, stealing €200 she had just withdrawn from an ATM.

The Caserta trip: On March 2, 2026, the couple moved to Parete, in the Caserta area. They followed the same modus operandi: breaking into the post office, terrorizing the counters, and escaping with a round €1.000. The two escaped on a moped, taking Via Arco Sant'Antonio in Giugliano, a rural road that would become their headquarters for changing clothes and hiding their vehicles.

The March 26 double-header: In less than an hour, Bombace and Di Nardo pulled off two more heists. First, they robbed the post office in Melito di Napoli (scoring €1.000,92) and then immediately returned to Giugliano to rob another post office counter for a paltry €320,43.

The Casaluce heist: The financial breakthrough came on May 5, 2026. Using a stolen Fiat 500X, they cleaned out the Casaluce post office coffers, stealing €15.450,00.
While Bombace managed the logistics, Di Nardo also experimented with alternative alliances: on April 27, he attempted a robbery in Qualiano with his accomplice Luigi D'Alterio, which failed only because the customers fled, and two days later he attacked the Eurospin in San Marcellino, brandishing, for the first time, a gun to steal 1.000 euros.

The entrance of the "great" and the military turning point

In the summer of 2026, the structure changes. Antonio Mariano (born 2005), Alessandro Cante (born 2000), and the group's veteran, thirty-eight-year-old Antonio Palma di Villaricca, enter the fray. With them, the level of violence escalates dramatically. The box cutter is no longer enough; the gang aims for more lucrative commercial targets and acquires a veritable arsenal.

On May 28, 2026, Bombace and Mariano robbed the Cardito post office in a stolen Fiat Panda, stealing €7.667,43 from the "Roller Cash" machines. This was the final heist at the post office. On June 23, in Mugnano di Napoli, Cante and Mariano planned down to the last detail the attack on a bank at closing time, using disguises and weapons, a plan that was foiled at the last minute.

The real savagery erupted on June 26, 2026, in Sant'Antimo, inside the "Il Molino" shopping center. Alessandro Cante, Antonio Mariano, and Antonio Palma broke into the Biondino jewelry store. It wasn't a simple robbery: it was a military raid. They slapped the owner Francesco Biondino and his elderly father, smashed the windows with their bare hands, and shouted a bloodcurdling threat: "We're shooting! We're shooting!" Faced with the victims' reaction, the gang actually opened fire.

Two shots were fired with 6.35 and 9mm caliber pistols. One bullet struck Francesco Biondino in the thigh, stopping just a centimeter from the superficial femoral artery. Only chance prevented the jeweler from bleeding to death. For this act, in addition to the jewelry robbery, the charge filed by Prosecutor Quaranta becomes extremely serious: attempted murder aggravated by trivial motives.

The gang's hunger wasn't satiated that day: a few hours after the Sant'Antimo attack, the group moved to Giugliano, where they intercepted a man. At gunpoint, the man was robbed of his Rolex watch, a gold necklace, and designer sunglasses, before the bandits fled in a stolen Peugeot 2008.

The pillory wiretaps: the laughter over the black Beverly

The end of the "cutter boys'" empire didn't come just thanks to surveillance videos or phone records showing the suspects' cell phones turning off simultaneously at the time of the robberies and then turning back on immediately afterward. What demolished the gang's defense were the bugs placed by the Judicial Police on the black Piaggio Beverly motorcycle used by Vincenzo Bombace.

The court files report conversations with crystal-clear evidentiary value. The young criminals, convinced they were invisible, commented on the robberies they had just committed, laughing at their victims and boasting about their own cunning.

Vincenzo Bombace launches into an almost theatrical monologue with some friends, extolling the ease of the robberies carried out:

Vincenzo Bombace: “…I was still in the lung [the entrance door], the first one opens, the second one opens [the doors]…” Man 1: “Good morning!!!” (laughing) Vincenzo Bombace: “…he said: Madonna!!! He turned in front of them…” (the group bursts out laughing) Vincenzo Bombace: “Do you want to know what Patrizio [Di Nardo] did?”

Bombace describes with pinpoint precision the episode in which Patrizio Di Nardo, having entered the post office partially covered by a neck warmer and a hat, is approached by an unsuspecting employee with a tag around his neck who says “Good morning,” without realizing in the slightest that the boy was about to take out his box cutter and jump over the counter.

In the same environmental interview, Bombace ironically praises his clothing choices for the heists, considering them textbook cunning:

Vincenzo Bombace: “…I carried out a robbery wearing a red tracksuit, a Barcelona hat, and some shoes…”

These spontaneous confessions, recorded live by investigators' wiretaps, perfectly matched the footage from the post office's video surveillance systems, where the robbers appeared dressed exactly as described in the wiretaps. Youthful bravado, combined with ferocious criminal exuberance, ultimately led to their conviction, providing the North Naples Prosecutor's Office with the indisputable evidence to issue an arrest warrant and break the bloodbath before the next attack.

(pictured from left: Vincenzo Bombace, Patrizio Di Nardo, and Alessandro Cante)