Italian police arrest gang of 'armed robbers' in their 60s and 70s who struck at post offices

Italian police have apprehended a group of six suspected robbers, all in their 60s and 70s, well-known in Rome’s criminal circles for their persistence in carrying out armed burglaries at post offices throughout the city.

According to The Guardian report, the ringleaders of the gang were identified as 70-year-old Italo De Witt, alias “the German,” who gained notoriety in the mid-1990s following a sophisticated bank heist near the Spanish Steps, and a 75-year-old individual who served as the lookout.

One of the accomplices, aged 68, purportedly took on the primary role of executing the robberies, while a 66-year-old was tasked with acquiring replicas of the backdoor keys to the targeted post offices. Additionally, two masons in their early 50s were implicated in drilling holes in the walls of some locations, often working overnight or on weekends to facilitate the thieves’ entry, added the report.

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The gang stands accused of stealing nearly €200,000 (£171,000) from a post office in the San Giovanni district in May last year. During the incident, two members armed with guns entered through the back door and menaced an employee who was loading the ATM.

According to the report, citing 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 series of heists, all captured on camera, concluded after the failed burglary of a post office in the Don Bosco area. The six individuals involved were apprehended and faced charges of armed robbery.

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These purported robbers were identified as “familiar faces” within the criminal circles of the Italian capital.

In 1995, De Witt, dressed elegantly, seized 15 bank employees as hostages by infiltrating a branch of Credito Italiano during their lunch break, using duplicated keys, and brandishing a firearm. He departed with a sum of 210 million lira.

With inputs from agencies