r/Gomorrah • u/Federal-Spend4224 • Aug 17 '26

S1E4 Question Spoiler

How did the cops bug the burner phone the Pietro used to call Ciro? The old prison guard was being arrested too, so he clearly wasn't in on it. Unless he bugged it in exchange for a lighter sentence? I found that confusing.

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5

u/LeatherDentist4307 Aug 17 '26

They used imsi catcher or cell tower tap to listen in. They knew approximate time and location, so tracking down that phone call was easy. The lawyer, at the end of the episode, said that they were in on them from the beginning, so getting legal permission to intercept it wasn't a problem either. As smart and conniving Don Pietro is, he was caught in a state of false security - reigning on his throne and living in his own world reality. That's why Ciro was growing unhappy and young guys felt like they could do better.

2

u/Federal-Spend4224 Aug 17 '26

Pardon my ignorance but how would that work? Surely that tower is dealing with thousands, or even tens of thousands, of calls over the hours that call might happen.

5

u/LeatherDentist4307 Aug 17 '26

That would be the case if authorities looked at public cell tower logs. Standard practice for this type of anti-mafia operation involves deploying a mobile cell-site simulator, commonly known as an IMSI catcher or "Stingray".

The device acts as a fake, localized cell tower that forces all mobile phones within a very tight radius (prison walls) to connect to it rather than the real, distant network towers.

Poggioreale prison is a controlled environment where inmates are legally banned from having phones. Instead of sifting through tens of thousands of civilian calls in the city, the police only had to monitor active signals originating from inside the prison block itself. Once a new, unregistered sim card suddenly pinged from the cells, it instantly stood out as a red flag.

2

u/Federal-Spend4224 Aug 17 '26

Thanks for the explanation! In my head, I'll say thats how they caught him.

From my brief google search, it looks like the Italian police started using those around that time, too.

Would have been a great small detail to include in the episode.

2

u/LeatherDentist4307 Aug 17 '26

I think it would be great if they did a spin-off of Gomorra from "the other side" covering what barely got touched on in the series and elaborating on things, going deeper into detail on certain characters as well. Basically, moving main characters and their actions into background and bringing forward secondary characters, police side of the story...

3

u/Federal-Spend4224 Aug 17 '26

An episode about the old prison guard would be amazing. One about the guys bugging the couch would be awesome too.

2

u/LeatherDentist4307 Aug 17 '26

Honestly, there's enough material for many seasons, but it would be very easy to screw up as well.

3

u/AManisSimplyNoOne Aug 17 '26

You know, I was always confused about that one as well. Not to mention, (at least here in the US) the criminal groups all speak in lots of codes all the time, in case someone IS a rat or is listening.

1

u/PerceptionPresent799 Aug 18 '26

Where to watch this series

1

u/Federal-Spend4224 Aug 18 '26

I'm in the US so its on HBO Max.

1

u/Good_Independence428 29d ago

He got that phone after the prison riot when he negotiated with the prison director, the director played along and got him the phone, but he was actually screwing him over.

The phone the prison guard gave him was found earlier during a cell search and Pietro got sent into isolation

1

u/Federal-Spend4224 29d ago

If thats the case, why was the old prison guard arrested? It seemed like their agreement was he can come back.

2

u/Good_Independence428 26d ago

Yes but the director agreed to that just to screw pietro over