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Bank branch after ATM blast in Castrop-Rauxel: police determined
Photo: Roland Weihrauch / dpa
Three men have been arrested in the Netherlands on suspicion of blowing up ATMs in several German states.
According to the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor's Office and the Hessian State Criminal Police Office (LKA), the suspects are 22, 27 and 28 years old.
As suspected members of a criminal organization in the Netherlands, they are said to have been involved in several ATM demolitions in Hesse, Baden-Württemberg, Lower Saxony and Rhineland-Palatinate in 2021 and 2022.
The suspects are said to have stolen the highest amount of money in a crime last October in Hattersheim in Hesse - more than 150,000 euros.
According to the report, other crime scenes were Dietzenbach in Hesse, Eppelheim in Baden-Württemberg, Wildeshausen in Lower Saxony and Kaisersesch in Rhineland-Palatinate.
Blasting in an apartment building
In connection with the blowing up of an ATM in Oberursel, Hesse, the 22-year-old and the 28-year-old are also being investigated for attempted murder.
According to the investigators, the machine was on the ground floor of an apartment building in which people were staying at the time of the crime.
The two men are said to be leading members of the group.
The arrests made on Tuesday were preceded by months of undercover investigations and intensive cooperation between Dutch and Hessian investigators.
At the end of March, three suspects between the ages of 25 and 31 were arrested near Bad Nauheim in the Wetteraukreis in Hesse, who are said to belong to the same group as those arrested now.
A seventh suspected accomplice is still being sought, said a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office.
For a long time there has been an accumulation of ATM demolitions in many regions of Germany, especially in the western federal states, especially North Rhine-Westphalia.
As can be seen from a corresponding situation report by the Federal Criminal Police Office, 268 cases were counted nationwide in 2020 in which perpetrators successfully caused an explosion.
Compared to the previous year, this was an increase of almost 23 percent.
About two thirds of all suspects are traveling perpetrators from the Netherlands.
Shots in Castrop-Rauxel
Another ATM was blown up in North Rhine-Westphalia on Thursday morning, this time in Castrop-Rauxel.
Several shots were fired.
A witness reported a detonation, which is why the police drove to the Sparkasse branch and discovered three suspects there, as the investigators report: "Several shots were fired later on." message not appear.
A police spokeswoman said they did not want to go into this for the time being because of the ongoing investigation.
A suspect was injured, the police officers were unharmed.
The injured man was arrested on the spot and taken to a hospital.
There was no danger to life.
The other two suspects fled in a car.
ptz/dpa
