Matthias Monroy

Sweeps by German authorities in the Netherlands, arrests after pursuit also in North Rhine-Westphalia

Investigators from Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg have apparently succeeded in a manhunt concerning ATM bombing. For more than a year, the public prosecutor’s office in Bamberg and the criminal investigation departments of both federal states have been investigating a group to which more than 50 offences have been attributed. On Monday, nine arrest warrants were executed in the Netherlands and 16 properties were searched.

Those arrested are strongly suspected of having blown up 34 ATMs in Bavaria, 17 in Baden-Wuerttemberg and one in Thuringia. This is one of the largest operations against ATM bombers in the Netherlands, the authorities said.

The alleged perpetrators are said to have started their series in November 2021 and to have stolen a total of €5.2 million. For their prosecution, the authorities formed a joint organised crime investigation team involving up to 15 officers. During the raids in several Dutch cities, tens of thousands of euros in cash, “luxury clothing and luxury watches” and a suspected crime vehicle were seized.

The arrested men are said to be between 25 and 41 years old and reside in the Netherlands, the authorities wrote. Accordingly, they are Dutch, Moroccan, Afghan, Turkish or Romanian nationals. Three other accomplices are still being sought.

The nine suspects were brought before a magistrate in the Netherlands and Belgium. The public prosecutor’s office in Bamberg has requested their extradition to Germany. There they are to be tried for aggravated gang theft, causing an explosion and destroying a building in several cases.

Nationwide, ATM blasts continue to increase, in 2022 police counted 493 completed blow-ups, Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) said at a press conference in Munich, referring to figures from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). Compared to 2021, this is an increase of 27 per cent with 392 cases at that time. In some cases, up to five ATMs exploded in one night last year, the “FAZ” reported, citing the BKA.

In the beginning, the perpetrators had cracked the ATMs with gas, which was injected into the devices and ignited. In recent months, solid explosives mixed from so-called Cobra firecrackers have been increasingly used throughout Germany. These explosions cause far greater damage to buildings than the gas used in the past.

The group, which has now been arrested in Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg, is also said to have exclusively used fixed explosives. In ten cases, the public prosecutor’s office in those states is therefore investigating the arrested persons for attempted homicide, in which people were “put in particular danger” by the explosions.

Bavaria’s Minister of Justice Georg Eisenreich (Christian Social Union, CSU) on Thursday described the ATM blasts as a “bank robbery of the modern age”. For their escapes, the perpetrators use high-powered Audi vehicles, which is why investigators refer to them as the “Audi gang”. The masterminds and executors of the crimes are suspected by the BKA to be mainly in the Netherlands, most of the crimes in this area take place in neighbouring German state North Rhine-Westphalia.

Investigators there also reported a success this week. After an attempted detonation of an ATM in the small town of Kierspe in the western Sauerland region, the suspected perpetrators were pursued by the police, allegedly blinding the officers with a laser pointer. The Audi was finally stopped in a dead-end street, according to the Hagen public prosecutor’s office and the responsible district police authorities. The three occupants, aged 23 to 24, fled on foot into a wooded area, where they were finally arrested with the support of a police helicopter. In the process, the officers had also used pepper spray.

Published in German in „nd“.

Image: A seized crime vehicle of the “Audi Gang” (Baden-Württemberg State Criminal Police Office).