Ten defendants and ten convictions. Heavy hand of the Judge of the preliminary hearing, Stefania Rachele, towards all the defendants of the “Safe Homes” operation, the blitz of the State Police which dismantled a gang of nomads, the vast majority of whom had extraordinary athletic skills and acrobatic abilities, who committed home burglaries. A criminal group that roamed everywhere in the city, from the historic center to the southern and northern suburbs of Reggio.
The accusatory system supported by the Prosecutor’s Office was consistently confirmed as solid, contesting a series of crime hypotheses, for various reasons, of criminal association, aggravated theft, receiving stolen goods and illegal possession of firearms. In detail, the sentences ordered by the Gup: Patrizio Bevilacqua, 5 years and 10 days in prison; Roberto Morelli, 5 years and 20 days; Francesco Berlingeri, 5 years 3 months and 10 days; Patrizio Berlingeri, 5 years old; Alessandro Bevilacqua, 5 years and 4 months; Damiano Berlingeri, 5 years 5 months and 10 days; Francesco Emanuele Bevilacqua, 3 years and 9 months; Youssef Aboulkuair, 4 years 9 months and 10 days; Amin Riah, 4 years and 4 months; Giovanni Vadalà, 4 years old. All sentences were reduced by a third for the choice of the alternative rite.
The other decisions of the Gup
The Gup also ordered the ban on the defendants from holding public offices, the confiscation of the assets seized during the blitz, the compensation of one of the victims who had taken civil action, reserving the traditional ninety days for the reasons for the sentence.
According to the investigative thesis, the criminal gang specialized in home burglaries was highly organised, starting from the stronghold of the nomadic community of Ciccarello. The first step of the criminal action is the monitoring of the designated victims for days, ascertaining the victims’ lifestyle habits, ringing the house phones to exclude their presence in the house at a certain time; immediately afterwards they went into action by stealing the car to use. The Flying Squad policemen have reconstructed at least ten episodes in less than six months. Heists that would have yielded a total of 150 thousand euros in cash and valuables; Two rifles and two pistols regularly detained were also stolen. Decisive evidence has not been obtained on numerous other thefts which investigators believe were committed by the same hand.
The turning point from the analysis of the images of the cameras present in the perimeter of the thefts. Although it is true that the bandits used to disguise their faces with scarves and headscarves, wearing sports caps or raising the hood of their sweatshirts, but someone ended up doing it with a misstep. First framed and since yesterday also convicted (to date in first instance, therefore with a trial process still to be completed).