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ATTLEBORO - A 1,500-pound safe believed to have been stolen in the sophisticated $2 million E.A. Dion Co. heist last summer, has been found cut up and buried deep in the ground in Hubbardston.

Police said they found the safe, or the remains of it on Thursday morning, cut into eight pieces and under eight feet of dirt behind a house in the rural central Massachusetts town. Hubbardston is south of Gardner.

Attleboro police, working with the FBI, Massachusetts State Police and Hubbard police, executed a search warrant to recover the safe around 6:30 a.m., police said.

The safe was buried so deep that police had to use an excavator to dig it up, one of the local investigators, Attleboro Detective James Cote, said.

Police located the safe with information developed in the continuing investigation into the jewelry heist last June, said Cote, who is working with local investigators Richard Campion and Russell Castro. Police say they have already recovered New York Giants Super Bowl rings, gold and jewelry and documents linked to the theft and have arrested four suspects, including the alleged mastermind, on various charges.

The alleged mastermind of the theft, Sean D. Murphy, 44, a furniture mover and the reputed leader of high-tech thieves dubbed the Lynn Breakers, was arrested in January. An alleged accomplice, David Nassor, 40, was arrested last month.

Two girlfriends of Murphy's were charged with receiving stolen property in January when Murphy was arrested.

No one was arrested Thursday on charges related to the safe.

Cote said the resident of the property where the safe was found cooperated with police and no charges have been filed, although the case remains under investigation.

The safe will be taken to a state police laboratory to be analyzed.

The thieves in the E.A. Dion heist were quite sophisticated, disabling an alarm system and backup alarm systems, cutting a hole in the roof and sneaking down into the factory where they apparently knew where the most valuable material was located.

Police suspect the safe was wheeled out of the building onto a loading dock where it was placed inside a getaway vehicle. An employee discovered the theft June 8 when she came to the factory after she could not access her company e-mail due to the wires on the building being cut in the robbery.

Attleboro detectives are working with the FBI and Massachusetts State Police in the continuing investigation.