After three or four minutes, the spook is over: unscrupulous thieves blow up ATMs and race away in high-powered getaway cars. The phenomenon has replaced the classic bank robbery in recent years. Now investigators celebrate a success.
Munich (dpa / lsw) - Southern German investigators have succeeded in striking a Dutch gang, which is said to have blown up more than 50 ATMs and stolen 5.2 million euros. According to current knowledge, the perpetrators who have been active since November 2021 have always chosen ATMs in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, with the exception of one attack in Thuringia. This was announced by the State Criminal Police Offices in southern Germany 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.
In Baden-Württemberg, 11 unsuccessful attempts were made in 11 cases last year, but the perpetrators succeeded in their plans 23 times. The year before there had been 24 attacks, in 2020 there were even 41 mostly successful attempts. According to the Federal Criminal Police Office, the gangs, which often come from the Netherlands, are also a real problem in other federal states, for example in neighboring North Rhine-Westphalia.
There is a nationwide trend that perpetrators are increasingly using solid explosives. These explosions have a significantly higher risk potential than the previously most commonly used method of detonation using injected gas. Banks and savings banks are therefore now increasingly using technical means to make their ATMs more secure or to completely block access to their anterooms at night.
Savings Bank ATMs in the southwest were attacked 22 times last year, three times fewer than the year before. Only three of them used gas - all failed, said savings bank president Peter Schneider. "Now you can forget about gas." Nine attacks were carried out with solid explosives, Schneider said. In Baden-Württemberg, machines are also increasingly being attacked with mechanical spreading tools. "So what you know in accidents or with the fire brigade. That's the hit now." The savings banks repeatedly invested large sums in security, then the next threat came, Schneider complained.
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).
"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.
