crime
Millions robbed from money transporter at A20 – perpetrators on the run
A burnt-out money transporter is parked at the Gützkow junction. photo
© -/dpa
Armed and masked criminals stop a money transporter at a motorway exit and rob it. They loot a record-breaking sum of millions. The manhunt is on.
After the spectacular attack on a money transporter with a loot of millions in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the perpetrators were still on the run on Friday. “And according to the current status, there was no decisive information,” said a police spokeswoman for the German Press Agency in Neubrandenburg. The search for the armed men is now running nationwide.
The masked perpetrators, armed with submachine guns, stopped and robbed a security company’s vehicle at the entrance to Autobahn 20 near Gützkow (West Pomerania-Greifswald) on Thursday morning. They stole several million euros, but the police have not yet announced the exact amount.
According to the police, they also fired shots. How often and where exactly is not yet known for tactical reasons, it said. The two employees of the security company were not injured. The “Ostseewelle” had previously reported that shooting had taken place.
Is organized crime behind it?
According to the police, the long preparations for the crime and the procedure itself speak for organized crime. For example, massive concrete parts were placed on the motorway access road as a “staged construction site”, with the help of which the money transporter was stopped and the car prevented from escaping.
The perpetrators had apparently brought the signs for the wrong construction site to the crime scene days before the attack. As a spokesman for the north-east branch of the Autobahn GmbH des Bundes said, during a route inspection on Monday, it was found that signs were leaning against the crash barrier at the Gützkow exit on the hard shoulder. After inquiries internally and with construction companies were negative, it was decided to clear away the signs at the next regular garbage collection campaign on Thursday morning. The robbery of the money transporter then happened on Thursday morning.
In addition, according to the police, the road maintenance department had meanwhile removed the concrete blocks that had been set up days earlier. The perpetrators must have rebuilt the fictitious construction site before the crime.
After the money transporter was opened by force from the rear, it was looted and set on fire. According to the information, the perpetrators fled with their loot of millions in one of their two vehicles. They would have set the second one on fire and also set fire to the rear of the money transporter. The getaway vehicle was found burned out hours later – a few kilometers away near Müssentin – in a wooded area, along with an empty money container. There was a high probability that another getaway vehicle was waiting there, it said.
According to further findings, the robbers probably knew the company’s tours better. The attacked transport was on its way from Greifswald to the Bundesbank branch in Neubrandenburg with a large sum of money, a police spokeswoman said. The money, presumably income from business people, should probably be paid in there, it was said. The A20 Gützkow slip road is the fastest southbound connection from Greifswald to Neubrandenburg.
Even if precise information is still missing, it could be the largest sum that fell into the hands of criminals in a robbery in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. In September 2005, robbers attacked a security company in Greifswald and stole the daily income from several supermarkets and shops – according to the information at the time, 2.75 million euros.