Italy: Gang of alleged armed robbers in their 60s and 70s arrested

Rome: A gang of six alleged robbers in their 60s and 70s known in Rome’s criminal underworld for their tenacity in carrying out a series of armed burglaries at post offices in the city have been arrested by police in Italy.

The gang’s leaders were 70-year-old Italo De Witt, nicknamed “the German”, who became renowned in the mid-1990s after a sophisticated heist of a bank near the Spanish Steps, and a 75-year-old who played the role of lookout.

A 68-year-old accomplice was allegedly the main person responsible for carrying out the robberies, while a 66-year-old was tasked with obtaining replicas of the back door keys of the targeted post offices. At some of the sites, two masons in their early 50s drilled holes in the walls, working throughout the night or at weekends to facilitate the thieves’ access.

The gang is allegedly responsible for stealing almost €200,000 (£171,000) from a post office in the San Giovanni district in May last year, after two of the members, armed with guns, entered through the back door and threatened an employee who was loading the ATM.

According to La Repubblica, another planned robbery was scuppered because the 66-year-old gang member was having incontinence issues and needed an operation on his prostate.

The run of heists, which were all caught on camera, came to an end after the failed burglary of a post office in the Don Bosco area. The six were arrested on armed robbery charges.

The alleged robbers were reported to be “old acquaintances” of the police in the Italian capital’s criminal underworld. In 1995, an elegantly dressed De Witt held 15 bank workers hostage after entering a branch of Credito Italiano using a set of copied keys during their lunch break and threatening them at gunpoint. He walked out with 210 million lira.