The Hague:
Dutch and German police have busted a criminal gang who made video tutorials on how to bomb money machines, only to blow themselves up in the method, officials mentioned Thursday.
One suspect was killed and a further badly hurt in the Dutch city of Utrecht when a trial run went incorrect at an illegal “training centre” for explosives attacks on ATMs, the EU’s police agency Europol mentioned.
Police ultimately made nine arrests for the duration of an 18-month operation targeting the gang, which is linked to at least 15 bombings on ATMs in Germany resulting in losses of 2.15 million euros ($2.5 million), it mentioned.
“The criminals were making video tutorials which were given in person to other criminals,” a Europol spokeswoman told AFP.
“The main suspect — a 29-year-old — blew himself up when filming a tutorial video. His accomplice — a 24-year-old — was seriously injured and taken into custody,” she mentioned.
The explosion occurred in September 2020.
The police hunt started just after officers in Osnabruck, Germany, identified “suspicious orders” of ATM machines from a German organization, mentioned Europol and its sister judicial agency Eurojust in a joint statement.
Surveillance led police across the border to Utrecht in the Netherlands exactly where the 29- and 24-year-old suspects had been allegedly operating the education centre.
“The pair was ordering different models of ATMs and recording tutorials on how to most effectively blow them up,” the EU agencies mentioned.
“The cash machines were blown open using homemade explosive devices, posing a serious risk for residents and bystanders,” they added.
The two males had been blown up “during one of the test runs of an explosion”.
Dutch police aided by Europol arrested 3 people today for the duration of raids in the location about Utrecht, Amsterdam and The Hague on Tuesday, for the duration of which seven properties had been also searched.
Those 3 suspects will be extradited to Germany. The other six people today had been arrested in the Netherlands for the duration of the previous year.
Europol mentioned that bomb attacks against ATMs had been a “growing concern” in Europe.
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