After the Commerzbank attempted blackmail with a dangerous letter to a Nuremberg branch, further prepared shipments were received by subsidiaries. People were not injured. “We are currently assuming that we are almost certainly dealing with one and the same shipper,” said police spokesman Robert Sandmann on Tuesday in Nuremberg. The first prepared letter caused a flash of fire in the Commerzbank branch in Nuremberg in March.
According to the police, the suspicious letters were sent on April 21 and 22 to the branch of an asset manager in Wiesbaden and to a real estate appraiser in Stuttgart. Since these were similar to the first letter, the post offices there took notice, Sandmann said. The Bavarian State Criminal Police Office forensically examined both programs and secured traces that suggested a connection with the first letter.
Sandmann did not want to say what kind of traces it was for reasons of investigative tactics. These are currently being compared with national and European databases. The other letters had shown that the blackmailer was a potentially dangerous perpetrator, the investigators said. There is a possibility that further letters will follow.
On March 24, a flash of fire broke out in a Commerzbank branch in Nuremberg when an employee opened an A5 envelope. The letter contained a mechanical construction that triggered a chemical reaction when opened. The woman was unharmed but suffered shock. According to the police, the broadcasts in Wiesbaden and Stuttgart were again such envelopes and again a kind of solid frame could be felt from the outside.
“Our employees are attentive”
Commerzbank had warned its employees and customers about dangerous mail after the first incident. “Our employees are attentive and look very closely,” said a spokeswoman in Frankfurt am Main. She did not want to comment on whether there was contact with the perpetrator and referred to the police. However, as is usual in cases of extortion, this does not give any details, explained police spokesman Sandmann.
In February last year there was already a series of parcel bombs sent to food companies in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. The perpetrator has not yet been caught. The investigators initially suspected a 67-year-old pensioner from Ulm. However, in the trial before the district court in Heidelberg, the judges acquitted the man in November 2021.