A 31-year-old man who is said to have played a leading role in blowing up ATMs in Hesse and Thuringia was extradited to Germany on Monday.
This was announced by the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor's Office on Tuesday, whose intervention reserve is investigating the case together with the Hessian State Criminal Police Office.
Anna Sophia Lang
Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.
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The accused is a German citizen, had last lived in Bad Soden im Taunus and was in Spain at the time of the arrest, where the authorities were looking for him.
He was arrested in December last year on the basis of a European arrest warrant and has now been extradited.
On Monday he was brought before the magistrate at the Offenbach district court.
As a leading member of a criminal organization that specializes in blowing up ATMs, he is suspected of having been involved in two completed and two attempted crimes, in which he helped plan and prepare them: In Neu-Isenburg in April 2019, where around 220,000 euros were stolen and damage of 50,000 euros was incurred.
In May of the same year in Eschborn, where 180,000 euros in cash were stolen and the damage caused by a subsequent fire brigade was high.
Three months later in Eisenach, where the Thuringian police prevented the blast and arrested three suspects.
And finally a week later in Hofheim, where Hessian police officers prevented the crime from being carried out and arrested two suspected perpetrators.
The men arrested at the crime scenes in Eisenach and Hofheim were sentenced to prison terms of between one and six years by the Gießen Regional Court in spring last year for these and other crimes.
The involvement of the suspected member of the leadership who has now been extradited to other crimes is currently being examined.