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Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - The tank crackers let it crack: The number of ATM explosions in North Rhine-Westphalia rose to a record level in 2020 before the end of the year.
After 104 attacks in the entire previous year, there were already 175 acts by the end of 2020 (as of December 22).
The State Criminal Police Office announced this on request.
It banged almost every other day on average.
The previous record was registered in 2016 with 136 explosions.
This mark was reached on August 26th in 2020 and exceeded a day later.
The investigators of the LKA special commission «Heat» assume that many of the explosions are due to a scene of around 300 Moroccan immigrants from Utrecht in the Netherlands.
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Despite the 175 explosions, so far this year the gangsters have only escaped with loot in 60 cases - in 115 cases the armoring of the machines, which has often been improved, withstood the attack.
In the past few weeks, activities had subsided.
In December there were only five more acts.
Investigators had found that the gangsters use explosives more often, which makes the attacks potentially even more dangerous.
Up until now, the “Plofkrakers”, as they are called in the Netherlands, had usually let an explosive gas mixture flow into the machines and ignited them.
In 2018, 108 explosive attacks were counted.
After a slight decline in 2019, the trend reversal followed in 2020.
The perpetrators have looted several million euros in the past few years and also caused millions in damage from the explosions.
The so-called Audi gang usually towers with high-powered, stolen cars and extremely reckless driving behavior.
In some cases, they had removed the airbags so that they could race on in the event of a collision.