Police officers waiting for bank robbers from Palermo to Melzo

Last Updated: March 12, 2024

Operazione antidroga tra Savona, Messina e Vercelli: 13 arresti

Six Italian robbers, aged between 32 and 61, were arrested yesterday (March 11) in flagrante delicto for attempting to rob a bank using the hole technique in Melzo, in the province of Milan. The police officers from the anti-robbery section of the mobile squad had learned that a gang of robbers from Palermo was coming to town to carry out a bank robbery. The investigations had led to believe that one of the targets was the Melzo branch of the Banca del Credito Cooperativo di Milano. Surveillance carried out by the mobile squad officers since the early morning not only led to the arrest of the attempted robbers but also to a precise reconstruction of the failed heist. Four of the suspects gained access through the basement of the bank building, where employee parking is located, forced one of the panic doors, and made their way up to the ground floor where the main entrance to the bank is located. In the immediate vicinity, there is a small room delimited by a door: from there, using various hardware tools skillfully, they proceeded to drill a hole in the wall to access the bank. Their plan was to wait for an employee to arrive, then break through the separating wall and access the offices without triggering the alarm. However, their plan was disrupted by the arrival of a cleaning woman who went to the room with the external door release button and found four masked men. Startled by this unexpected event, realizing they couldn’t immobilize the woman in the foyer, the robbers immediately fled, threatening the woman not to call anyone. Waiting for them outside, however, were the mobile squad officers who also stopped their driver who was waiting for them in a stolen car with a cloned license plate. A bit further on the outskirts of Melzo, there was a lookout waiting for them who, as reconstructed by the State Police, was supposed to act as a relay for the robbers’ car. He too was stopped by the Mobile Squad agents shortly after the arrest of his accomplices.