From what I've read, they were actually trying to get back their own CNC server (which they had somehow lost access to), and the "third-party ISP" (Aruba) was co-operating with them.

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.