Status: 23.09.2021 5:39 p.m.
Former Reemtsma kidnapper Drach has been charged with robbing money trucks. The public prosecutor’s office in Cologne accuses him, among other things, of attempted murder. Drach was extradited to Germany in May.
The public prosecutor’s office in Cologne has brought charges against former Reemtsma kidnapper Thomas Drach for three attacks on money transports. She accuses him of, among other things, attempted murder and particularly serious robbery, said the Cologne Regional Court. In May Drach was extradited from the Netherlands to Germany after being arrested in an Amsterdam apartment in February. Since then he has been in custody in Cologne.
As the Cologne regional court announced, the indictment is also directed against an alleged accomplice from the Netherlands. A 52-year-old Dutchman who is said to have helped Drach is also charged. The allegations should first be examined in the so-called interim proceedings.
Raids in Cologne and Frankfurt
In 2018 and 2019, Drach is said to have committed three attacks on money transports in Cologne, at Cologne-Bonn Airport and in Frankfurt am Main. He is said to have attacked the employees of the transport companies at gunpoint and stole the money they transported. At that time, he would have had aside the daily income from two Ikea branches as well as the coins for the baggage trolley stations at the airport. In the first two cases he allegedly used an AK-47 assault rifle and in the third case a revolver.
The allegation of attempted murder relates to the attack in Frankfurt. Drach is said to have snatched the money box from the messenger and then ran away. The messenger then fired a shot at the fleeing dragon. Thereupon the latter shot at the messenger while he was running and accepted his death in the process. The prosecution sees greed and the intention to cover up as characteristics of murder.
Drach are also charged with: particularly serious robbery in three cases, dangerous bodily harm in two cases, violation of the War Weapons Control Act in two cases, violation of the Weapons Act, forgery of documents and arson in three cases.
Arrested in the Netherlands
Overall, Drach is said to have stolen a sum of around 141,831 euros from the robberies. The co-accused 52-year-old Dutchman allegedly committed the second act jointly with Drach and assisted in the third attack. In all three cases, the perpetrators are said to have set fire to the first escape vehicle. The Cologne Regional Court is now examining whether there is sufficient suspicion against Drach and his alleged accomplice.
For years there was no trace of the perpetrators. By evaluating the video recordings of the attack at Cologne / Bonn Airport and the subsequent partly undercover investigations, the prosecutors succeeded in identifying and confiscating an escape vehicle. Drach was arrested in the Netherlands in February and extradited to Germany in early May. He is counted among the most dangerous felons in Germany.
Reemtsma kidnapping in 1996
Overall, Drach is considered to be highly criminal and well connected in the international criminal environment. In 1996 he and accomplice kidnapped Jan Philipp Reemtsma, the Hamburg heir to the tobacco dynasty of the same name. Drach was sentenced to 14 years and six months in prison in 2000 for the crime. While he was still in prison, he was sentenced again for attempted incitement to extortion. He was released in October 2013.
In view of Drach’s criminal record, prosecutors requested that he be placed in preventive detention. A psychiatric assessment of the 60-year-old has already been commissioned.