Pesaro, August 10, 2026 – A trade war in the cardboard packaging sector that, according to the accusation, allegedly escalated to setting fire to the competing company. Sixteen months after the fire that devastated the Sigilla plant in Pesaro causing nearly 4 million euros in damages, the carabinieri have arrested who they believe to be the mastermind: a well-known 57-year-old entrepreneur, owner of a company in the same sector in the Talacchio di Vallefoglia area.
The motive would be commercial competition
The man has been placed under house arrest and is said to have conceived and organized the arson for reasons of commercial competition.
The breakthrough came this morning, when the carabinieri of the Investigative Unit of the Provincial Command of Pesaro and Urbino executed the order issued by the judge of the Pesaro Court.
The 57-year-old is charged with aggravated arson in complicity and aggravated slander. The measure was ordered after the preventive interrogation of the suspect, based on the elements collected by the investigators and the conclusions of the Prosecutor’s Office.
The fire dates back to the night between April 10 and 11, 2025. The flames heavily damaged the Sigilla plant, a company active in the production and marketing of cardboard products. A devastating fire, with property damage estimated at nearly four million euros. The initial investigations led to the identification of the alleged material perpetrators: four men with multiple convictions, three from the province of Foggia and one from the Ancona hinterland. Their positions are now under review by the preliminary hearing judge.
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From the material perpetrators to the next step of the investigation
The investigation did not stop at those who, according to the accusation, physically set the fire. Continuing the inquiries after the first precautionary measures, the carabinieri sought to reconstruct what would have happened upstream of the fire: who wanted it, organized it, and set it in motion.
An investigative work also conducted through wiretaps, which led to the 57-year-old and two other convicted individuals.
The latter, currently under investigation but free, are said to have participated in the organizational phase as alleged logistical intermediaries between the mastermind and the men tasked with physically carrying out the arson. According to the investigative reconstruction, behind the destruction of the Sigilla plant would emerge a motive linked to business. The 57-year-old indeed operates precisely in the production of cardboard packaging, the same sector as the company reduced to ashes.
For the investigators, commercial competition would have driven him to conceive and organize the fire. The judge, considering the seriousness of the collected evidence, ordered house arrest for the entrepreneur. After the formalities, the 57-year-old was taken to his home.
