Tommaso Morra, the leader of a criminal gang that orchestrated a foiled €83 million heist on the Mondialpol vault in Calcinato (Brescia) on March 11, 2022, has been arrested in his hometown of Cerignola (Foggia) after six months as a fugitive. Morra now faces a definitive prison sentence of 12 years and 6 months.
His conviction resulted from investigations culminating in a spectacular raid by the NOCS (Central Security Operations Service) police unit. The operation apprehended 31 gang members, predominantly from Cerignola, just before they could execute the heist. Among those detained were two Calabrian-born, Brescia-resident security guards employed by Mondialpol itself.
Investigations reveal the gang specialized in armored truck robberies and heists, allegedly collaborating with ‘Ndrangheta members in the Brescia area and local lookouts. Morra helped devise a particularly brutal plan: positioning 26 stolen cars to block roads, which would then be set ablaze to hinder police. A 14-member assault team, heavily armed, would storm the cash depot, using a bulldozer to breach the vault wall. The stolen money would be loaded onto a truck that had arrived in Brescia carrying men and weapons, destined to leave with €80 million.
The plot failed because the Brescia Prosecutor’s Office had been intercepting the gang’s communications for six months, tracking their every move. Surveillance uncovered the gang’s bases: apartments in Gardone Valtrompia and Ospitaletto, and their main hideout in a Cazzago San Martino warehouse. Police, Carabinieri, and special forces units stormed these locations, using explosives to gain entry.
The gang was heavily armed; the raid seized four assault rifles, Kalashnikovs, Uzi submachine guns, pistols, tire-puncturing spikes, military-grade ammunition, and 21 Molotov cocktails. Morra’s arrest, described as a “dangerous criminal,” was achieved through police investigations supported by the Guardia di Finanza (Financial Police) and coordinated by the Genoa Prosecutor’s Office.