THREE suspected armed robbers using explosives on ATM to loot millions of Euros have been arrested in Germany.
Residents of German town of Kronberg were woken from their sleep by several explosions in the early hours of Thursday, March 23, 2023.
The attack caused severe damage to the building and forced the evacuation of its inhabitants.
According to local media reports, witnesses saw people dressed in dark clothing fleeing in a black car towards a nearby highway.
During the heist, thieves stole 130,000 euros in cash. They also caused an estimated half a million euros worth of collateral damage, according to a report by Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office, BKA.
Rather than staging dramatic and risky bank robberies, criminal groups in Europe have been targeting ATMs as an easier and more low-key target.
In Germany – Europe’s largest economy – thieves have been blowing up ATMs at a rate of more than one per day in recent years.
In a country where cash is still a prevalent payment method, the thefts can prove incredibly lucrative, with criminals pocketing hundreds of thousands of euros in one attack.
Europol has been cracking down on the robberies, carrying out large cross-border operations aimed at taking down the highly-organized criminal gangs behind them.
Earlier this month, authorities from Germany, France and the Netherlands arrested three members of a criminal network who have been carrying out attacks on cash machines using explosives, Europol said in a statement.
An explosive device used to blow up ATMs shown at a press event in Stuttgart, Germany on November 21, 2023.
Since 2022, the detainees are believed to have looted millions of euros and run up a similar amount in property damage, from 2022 to 2024, Europol said.
The criminal network used locations in France as “hideaway spots” and relied on getaway cars hired from a French rental company, according to the statement.
The arrests came as part of a wider operation by German, French and Dutch investigators, which also saw law enforcement search car rental companies whose vehicles had been used to flee crime scenes, in an “action day” across locations in the three countries.
Europol says that perpetrators have mostly been using solid explosives, mainly derived from fireworks, to explode the cash-filled machines – a dangerous tactic that results in heavy damage. In 2023, the lootings in Germany caused 28.4 million euros worth of secondary damage alone, according to BKA.
Often based in the Netherlands, the gangs “take extreme risks and act unscrupulously,” Europol says, both during the robberies themselves and the ensuing escapes in high-powered vehicles.
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The chosen ATMs are often in quieter, residential areas – making them easier targets. According to Europol, this means that they pose a serious harm to buildings and residents. The attacks can crumble building facades and scatter shards of glass.
In some cases, they can even prove fatal.
On November 11, an ATM robbery in the town of Wiernsheim in the German state of Baden Württemberg ended in disaster. After stealing 40,000 euros in cash, a criminal trio from the Netherlands attempted a high-speed getaway in a VW Golf with stolen license plates, according to local media reports. Pursued by police, they drove the wrong way down Germany’s A6 motorway.
Two of the three criminals were caught at a rest stop, but the 30-year-old Dutch driver escaped and continued to drive against the traffic at speeds of up to 200 kilometers per hour, until colliding head-on with a van.
The driver and passenger in the truck were both severely injured, with the passenger dying in hospital days later. The driver, who was also heavily injured, was arrested and later sentenced to life in prison.
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