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The number of ATM explosions in Germany remains at a high level. Research by Report Mainz show that there is an extremely sophisticated system behind the crimes – supported by dubious car rental companies.
Although more and more perpetrators are being convicted, information about the masterminds of these crimes is extremely sparse: According to research by Report Mainz The trials against ATM burglars usually follow a similar pattern. The perpetrators confess their crimes, but remain silent about their clients and the structures behind them.
Lawyer Christoph Pawlowski, who has been representing ATM busters for years, reports of his clients saying in unison: “If I talk about other people, it could make me feel bad.”
Criminal “clusters” in Utrecht
Three years ago, investigators still managed to gain a rare insight into how the masterminds worked. A Dutchman ordered several ATMs in Lower Saxony to be delivered to an industrial area in a district in Utrecht that is known for ATM blasts.
The Osnabrück public prosecutor’s office found out about this and equipped the devices with hidden cameras. The result: The building at the specified address turned out to be a training center for ATM busters.
29-year-old Jawad Z. used the ordered ATMs to film instructional videos and carry out test explosions. During one such exercise, the leader accidentally blew himself up. Upon request from Report Mainz The city of Utrecht said in writing that it was a so-called “ATM gas attack school”.
The body of the man who accidentally killed himself was “thrown into the street.” Four men and one woman were later arrested in connection with this.
The city confirmed that there are several criminal “clusters” in Utrecht that prepare and carry out ATM explosions. In the first four months of this year alone there were as many arrests as in the entire year of 2022, with “almost half” of the perpetrators coming from Utrecht, the city said.
The perpetrators just have to get in and drive off
Reporter of the ARD-Politics magazine Report Mainz held discussions with numerous public prosecutors, criminal defense lawyers and investigative authorities. They all agree: the perpetrators, who are usually very young and often have Moroccan roots, are merely the executive part of the ATM busting machine. Organized crime operates in the background.
According to the findings of investigator and police union member (Association of German Criminal Officers) Oliver Huth, the majority of the loot flows into other crimes, particularly drug trafficking. “The money from our ATMs is used for further crimes, especially for preparation,” he emphasized in an interview Report Mainz.
Investigators are all the more concerned that almost nothing has changed in the number of attacks on German ATMs. The problem has apparently just shifted. While attacks in Lower Saxony, which has been severely affected in the past, more than halved in the first nine months with 23 explosions compared to the same period last year, the number of attacks in other federal states increased.
Highest increase in Hesse
In comparison, Hesse recorded the highest increase: (January to September 2023: 40, January to September 2022: 26), followed by Baden-Württemberg (January to September 2023: 31, January to September 2022: 22) and Rhineland-Palatinate (January to September 2023: 39, January to September 2022: 34). North Rhine-Westphalia, the most affected federal state, recorded almost unchanged high numbers of attacks in the comparison period (January to September 2023: 124, January to September 2022: 125).
The ATM blasts are obviously carefully planned and organized down to the last detail. The perpetrators are recruited by people behind them and often just have to get into a car and drive off, investigators report.
A recently negotiated case of an ATM explosion in Koblenz illustrates how this can happen. The two perpetrators, who were sentenced to long prison terms by the Koblenz regional court, were approached by someone behind the crime shortly before the crime. He offered the perpetrators 25 percent of the loot each. The crime vehicle, a high-performance BMW, was handed over to the perpetrators along with two explosive devices, balaclavas, headlamps, crowbars, sports bags, filled petrol cans and a cell phone immediately before they left.
Vehicles are prepared for the crimes
During the trial it became clear: During their operation, the sprinklers were in constant communication via WhatsApp with a man behind them who followed their location live and gave instructions such as “Turn on the gas!” passed through. The two perpetrators then broke into the supermarket and blew up the ATM.
While fleeing, the vehicle ultimately crashed during a pursuit with a plainclothes police officer. The person behind it in the Netherlands offered to have the ATM bombers picked up, but the perpetrators were caught.
Research by Report Mainz show that the crime vehicles are often rented through dubious car rental companies, often through complex chains of rental companies and a network of front people. Bernhard Südbeck, senior public prosecutor in Osnabrück, explains that nowadays perpetrators often use rented cars instead of stolen vehicles.
This enables the ATM busters to remove chips installed in the car that are used for tracking purposes. Judgments show that many of the vehicles are converted in special workshops in the Netherlands before they are used.
Rocker boss rents out cars from Essen
The reporters from Report Mainz has managed to identify a vehicle that was used in an escape from Schüttorf in Lower Saxony in 2020. It was a white VW Golf with a Dinslaken license plate. A later convicted man rented the vehicle from a car rental company in the Netherlands during his open prison sentence, even though it was registered to a car rental company in Essen.
The car rental company’s managing director, who was registered in the commercial register, was already known to investigators: Mohammed Mandalawi, the head of the Iraqi rocker group Al Salam 313. The authorities were already investigating the group for drug trafficking and smuggling. Mandalawi is currently in Dutch custody, charged with attempted murder.
However, judgments show that there are other dubious rental companies in Germany that make their cars available to ATM busters. For the police unionist Huth, this solidarity is logical: “From their point of view, the perpetrators from Holland need car rental companies with integrity, from whom law enforcement authorities get a bloody nose if they ask. That’s what they rely on and that’s what they get from the perpetrator group: namely the principle of silence.”