ROME – In what looked like a scene from an action movie an explosion was triggered by a band of around 20 people in order to steal thousands of latest generation iPhones and Samsungs from the Edgar depo, a company that specialises in the international shipment of smartphones, according to police sources. 

 The loot, which is valued at around 3 million euros, was taken around 4 a.m. Monday morning in Portuense, between Rome and Fiumicino, when the explosion went off. The group. The group-leaders set off bombs with thousands of three pointed nails at the asphalt walls and then used stolen vans and vehicles placed along the roads and flames to block off the main roads that access the centre - even near the Carabinieri at Ponte Galeria – to stop armed law enforcement from pursuing them, guaranteeing a safe escape. 

 The striking and audacious technique has been described by law enforcement as one adopted by ‘criminal schools’ from Cerignola, in Foggiano, which would make the ‘batteries’ used in assaults on ports and thus, could have been in league with the culprits of this major theft.

 The following morning there were numerous vehicles that were stopped by the hooked nails tearing at their wheels and the blocked roads. At 1 p.m. the municipal administrative councillor, Angelo Vastola, asked locals to reported the places where there are still nails, given that a national strike ensued on the same day, making the clean-up even harder. 

 The Messagero reports that the explosion-theft was much like one that happened in June of last year in Patrica, in Frusinate, where 10 bandits assaulted the S.G. Logistics depo, robbing entire pallets of smartphones worth around 1.5 million euros. The robbery followed exactly the same course with nail-bomb explosions and vehicles in flames blocking off the streets at 4 a.m. 

 Edoardo Di Giuliano, a representative of Edgar, was seen looking round the bombsite in utter shock and disbelief. “Our surveillance cameras had just been updated that Friday and captured everything that happened clearly. The group-leaders created a massive explosion with three cars, one big van and one little one and then at 4:08 a.m. our alarm went off.” 

 “They had a very clear idea of what they were doing. They discarded computers, less valuable phones and televisions.” 

 “The problem with the inventory is only the tip of the iceberg. What else must we to ensure that we can work in peace? In this place we have maximum security and yet if these men continue to arrive in groups of 20, in groups of 30 and incredibly well organised, what can we do? Should the security guards get themselves killed while opposing them?” 

 There are still no official suspects in the case and nobody claimed responsibility. 

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