Goldsmith Gang Broken Up After Series of Burglaries
Vicenza – The Carabinieri in Bassano del Grappa, in collaboration with the Vicenza Public Prosecutor’s Office, have dealt a significant blow to organized crime. After months of investigation, they dismantled a gang that specialized in burglaries at jewelry stores in northern and central Italy. Three Albanian citizens, aged 37, 40, and 44, were identified as the alleged perpetrators and charged.
The gang is believed to be responsible for at least ten burglaries and attempted burglaries between November 2025 and February 2026. The crime scenes were located in the provinces of Vicenza, Verona, Arezzo, and Macerata. Investigators made a breakthrough as early as February 26 of this year. At that time, they executed an arrest warrant in the Milan area against three men, two of whom are among the now-identified principal perpetrators.
A Professional Approach to Cloned License Plates
During a search at that time, officers discovered the group’s logistics base: an underground parking garage in Trezzano sul Naviglio (Milan). There, they found a stolen Heckler & Koch pistol with ammunition, approximately 53,000 euros in cash, luxury watches, and valuable jewelry. Because of the discovery of the weapon, the men were arrested on the spot and have since been held in pretrial detention at Milan’s San Vittore Prison.
The group operated with the utmost professionalism. For their heists, they used high-horsepower cars registered to front men. They systematically attached counterfeit license plates to these vehicles. The license plates were exact copies of those on inconspicuous vehicles of the same model and color, in order to deceive video surveillance systems.
An analysis of the seized stolen goods enabled investigators to link the series of burglaries to the gang. The loot included, among other things, over 23 kg of silver, five 100-gram gold bars, and two Rolex watches. There is good news for the affected companies: All of the loot, worth over 500,000 euros, has already been returned to its rightful owners.
