Raid: Investigation success after blowing up ATMs

raid
Investigation success after blowing up ATMs

A blown up ATM can be seen during a press conference at the State Criminal Police Office (LKA). photo

© Sven Hoppe/dpa

To get the money, a gang ruthlessly blasts their way to the ATMs. The material damage is always higher than the loot. Now investigators have caught the gang.

Southern German investigators have struck a blow against a Dutch gang, which is said to have blown up more than 50 ATMs in this country and stolen 5.2 million euros. According to current knowledge, the perpetrators who have been active since November 2021 have always chosen ATMs in the two southern German states, with the exception of one attack in Thuringia. This was announced by the State Criminal Police Offices of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg and the public prosecutor’s office in Bamberg on Thursday in Munich.

On Monday, the officers searched 16 buildings during a raid in the Dutch provinces of Utrecht and Limburg and in Belgium in cooperation with the local police. Nine men aged 25 to 41 who were wanted on an arrest warrant were arrested. “This is one of the largest actions against ATM blasters in the Netherlands,” said the German investigators. Three more are still being sought.

“Bank robbery of modernity”

Nationwide there were 493 such acts last year, said Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU), citing the Federal Criminal Police Office. Therefore, many other gangs are still active. And: “Experience shows that the gaps in the ranks of the perpetrators caused by such successful investigations are quickly filled.”

“The ATM blast is considered a modern bank robbery,” added Bavaria’s Justice Minister Georg Eisenreich (CSU). In the end, the perpetrators often used solid explosives, which means that the explosions have a significantly higher risk potential than with the previously used method of detonating with injected gas.

“The perpetrators ruthlessly blast their way to the money, risk the lives of bystanders and destroy buildings,” emphasized Baden-Württemberg’s Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU) in a statement. The property damage is regularly higher than the loot. In the current series, it is said to be 6.5 million euros.

dpa

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