I agree that the Italian ROS (which is part of the Carabinieri, a military police force that ended up being the main Italian police force because of accidents of history and a local penchant for fascism) were heavy-handed, as they are all the time. For all our crying about NSA, European law enforcement agencies are typically much worse.
They did it not because of a break (or so I understand, I'll be happy to be mistaken) but, probably, "to keep the Man quiet". While understandable (to a point) this is definitely not what an "innocent third party" will do.
I think in economies where tech is slower to adopt into the mainstream agenda, abuses like this are seen as the digital equivalent of 'reasonable force'. Where there is no existing protocol, there will be fuzzy lines and abuses in order to justify bringing criminals to justice.