Rome, 24 November (LaPresse) – Carabinieri from the Rome Parioli Operational Unit are executing an order for the arrest of 18 individuals. The investigation, led by magistrates from the Rome Public Prosecutor's Office's Department of Widespread and Serious Crime, has gathered serious evidence regarding the existence of a criminal group, composed of individuals of Roma ethnicity, gravitating around the nomad camp in Via dei Gordiani, suspected, for various reasons, of being responsible for at least 46 confirmed incidents of theft and robbery, as well as, in some cases, kidnapping, receiving stolen goods, damage to property and arson. Despite the arrests made by the Carabinieri themselves during the investigation to curb the dangerous wave of violence, the suspects reorganised themselves extremely quickly, recruiting new members. The home robberies often involved elderly people, who were woken up with a start or surprised while watching television, threatened – in one case even with a gun – and forced to hand over everything they owned, mostly in the afternoon or evening. Conversely, some of the suspects are suspected of thefts from commercial establishments such as amusement arcades and tobacconists. During the robberies, the suspects remained in telephone contact, allowing the Carabinieri who intercepted them to hear the voices and screams of the defenceless victims in the background. During the investigation, serious evidence emerged that some of the robberies had been organised in detail under the telephone direction of a Roma man detained at Regina Coeli prison in Rome.