50 deeds, 5.2 million euros in loot, four minutes per blast: Makes a minute's wages of around 26,000 euros.

You can drive from the Netherlands to Bavaria for that.

Arrived at the bank branches in the Allgäu or in Upper Franconia, it went very quickly.

Hammer out, smash the glass panes in the foyer, attach explosive charge to the ATM, run out, explosion.

Then, along with the money, into the highly motorized car with the German license plates that had just been stolen – and back towards the border.

David Klaubert

Editor in the department "Germany and the World".

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Karen Truscheit

Editor in the “Germany and the World” department.

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The Bavarian State Criminal Police Office (LKA) shows on Thursday on video from a surveillance camera how smoothly – and lightning fast – the gang, whom the Bamberg public prosecutor’s office has accused of more than 50 crimes in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg: Two men in hoodies, sweatpants and Sneakers smash the glass door in a bank branch with sledgehammers, blow up the machine and are gone again.

Cash, cars, luxury watches - and explosives

Now the police have succeeded in striking the gang: in an internationally coordinated police action, eight men were arrested in the Netherlands and one man in Belgium on Monday.

Three other suspects, against whom arrest warrants exist, are being sought.

With the success of the investigation, a lot of cash, two vehicles as well as luxury watches and explosive charges were also secured.

The crimes are not just about loot in the millions and sometimes even higher property damage, says LKA President Harald Pickert on Thursday: "Often people are endangered by the explosions." Because the branches are sometimes housed on the ground floor of residential buildings, in one Fall was even an old people's home above a blown up vending machine.

Two residents of a house required medical treatment after an explosion.

Some of the allegations are therefore attempted murder or dangerous bodily harm.

In addition: aggravated gang theft and causing an explosives explosion.

The series of crimes, which led to property damage of 6.5 million euros, began on November 5, 2021 in the Unterallgäu district.

The perpetrators stole 287,000 euros from this blast between 2 and 3 a.m. alone.

The investigators also found DNA traces, which were secured at crime scenes, of the suspects aged between 25 and 41 – they have Dutch, Afghan, Turkish, Romanian or dual citizenship.

The focus was on a group from the Dutch city of Roermond in the province of Limburg and from the province of Utrecht.

The men are suspected of having blown up 34 ATMs in Bavaria and 17 in Baden-Württemberg, as well as one in Thuringia.

"From Roermond they started their raids in Germany," explains the LKA President.

Mostly connections to the Netherlands

It is no surprise that the suspects were arrested in the Netherlands: investigators suspect connections to the neighboring country in most of the blasts, with estimates ranging from 60 to more than 80 percent.

Instead of handling gas mixtures like a few years ago, the Dutch perpetrators now mainly use solid explosives - mostly from illegal Cobra firecrackers.

The powder from 15 to 20 crackers is enough for a charge that blows open a machine.

Just last fall, 350 tons of pyrotechnics were confiscated during raids on a network that had smuggled illegal fireworks from China to the Netherlands.

The damage to bank branches and other buildings in which machines are located is increasing.

And the danger for residents and passers-by has also increased significantly.