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Thomas Drach in 2011 in the Hamburg district court
Photo:
Christian Charisius / dpa
Thomas Drach was free for eight years, now the police have arrested him again in the Netherlands.
The 60-year-old with multiple criminal records is said to have robbed a money transporter near Cologne-Bonn Airport in March 2019.
But an eyewitness filmed the professionally prepared coup and put the investigators on Drach's trail.
Investigators have since been looking for him with a European arrest warrant.
But who is the now collected man who caused a stir with the kidnapping of the Hamburg patron and heir Jan Philipp Reemtsma in the 1990s?
Drach and the robberies
Drach is suspected of having been involved in at least three money truck robberies.
In addition to the robbery at the airport, the investigators also attribute a similar attack on the Ikea furniture store in Cologne-Godorf in March 2018 and a coup in a Frankfurt Ikea in November 2019.
The prosecutors accuse him of serious robbery in three cases and a violation of the War Weapons Control Act.
A Kalashnikov was used in the airport attack.
The police were able to pursue one of the filmed escape vehicles as far as the Netherlands after a "very costly, partly undercover investigation," as they say.
The car was secured there.
In all three cases, the perpetrators had fled with cars stolen in the Netherlands and false license plates and set the cars on fire not far from the crime scene, in order to then continue the escape with another waiting car.
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Investigators in front of a burned-out getaway car after an attack in Cologne (2018)
Photo: Thomas Kraus / dpa
Drach's arrest
The 60-year-old was arrested in the Netherlands.
According to SPIEGEL information, Drach was arrested without resistance.
He is to be brought before the judge in Amsterdam on Wednesday.
The Cologne public prosecutor has applied for extradition.
According to a Dutch judicial spokesman, this could be the case within ten days after a quick trial.
The investigators did not provide any more precise information about the exact location of the arrest in Amsterdam.
According to the "Bild" newspaper, the police are still looking for two accomplices.
During the Reemtsma kidnapping in 1996, Drach had worked with his younger brother Lutz and three other men.
Drach's criminal career
Thomas Drach grew up in Erftstadt, a 50,000-inhabitant city near Cologne.
He first committed a criminal offense at the age of 13, broke off an apprenticeship and raided a supermarket at the age of 18.
With his one year younger brother Lutz, he stormed into the counter hall of a bank in 1981 and asked for money, both of which were arrested.
Drach planned the kidnapping of the Hamburg sociologist and tobacco heir Jan Philipp Reemtsma.
Drach and accomplices overpowered the millionaire in front of his villa in Hamburg-Blankenese in the spring of 1996 and dragged him to a dungeon near Bremen.
Drach's most brutal coup
For 33 days, Drach and his accomplices held Reemtsma, then 43 years old, chained and hostage.
When the patron tried to defend himself, Drach reacted with violence: He hit Reemtsma's head against the wall.
Twice he broke ransom deliveries - and finally extorted 15 million D-Marks and 12.5 million Swiss francs.
He and his accomplices then released the multimillionaire.
more on the subject
Entrepreneurial families: The fear of kidnappingsBy Norbert F. Pötzl
Drachs escape to South America
Drach first went into hiding in Uruguay and spent a lot of money on a villa, money launderer and a Mercedes convertible 500 SL.
He was caught in Argentina, and the investigators arrested him in a hotel room in Buenos Aires - he is said to have been in the city, among other things, to attend a concert.
Two and a half years later he was extradited.
Drach and the judiciary
Drach, referred to by the media as a criminal »mastermind«, was tried in the Hamburg district court in 2000.
Drach made a far-reaching confession, but his lawyers struggled to keep their clients in check.
Again and again he provoked the public prosecutor.
"The fact that Mr Reemtsma is sitting here so unscathed today is solely thanks to the level-headed perpetrators," said Drach at the time.
He was sentenced to fourteen and a half years' imprisonment for extortionate kidnapping.
In the verdict, the presiding judge said that Drach's behavior had to be countered "with a penalty close to the maximum".
The time in custody for deportation in the Argentine prison, which according to a SPIEGEL report is said to have been luxurious (33 square meters with its own shower), was only credited to a small part.
Drach in court again
In 2011 Thomas Drach had to go to court again in Hamburg, he was charged with attempting to incite robbery to extortion.
The public prosecutor's office accused him of exerting pressure on his brother Lutz from prison.
In this process he showed himself again from his unpleasant side: in a bad mood, in sweatpants and a training jacket, he repeatedly disrupted the main proceedings, provoked with gestures and strained the nerves of chairman Ulrike Taeubner.
Thomas Drach described his brother as a "rat" who "brought him 75 million euros and 14 years of my life".
In the end, Drach was imprisoned for another 15 months.
more on the subject
Thomas Drach: The prevented millionaire by Julia Jüttner
Dragon and freedom
In 2013 Drach was released from prison in Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel, and in the autumn of that year he moved to a former inmate on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza.
Despite the million-dollar booty, he is said to have had financial problems and not paid rent for the shelter.
The fact that Drach is now said to have committed robberies also indicates that little is left of the ransom from the Reemtsma kidnapping.
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apr / jjc / bbr / dpa
