2023-12-14 16:49:27
After the second coup this week in the Mühlviertel, the police were on guard: after a chase, a suspect was caught in the Czech Republic. The trail leads to the Netherlands.
A suspect was arrested in the Czech Republic after ATMs were blown up on Wednesday night in Reichenthal (Urfahr-Raum district) and on Thursday night in Aigen-Schlägl (Rohrbach district). The 21-year-old Dutchman was caught after a chase south of Lake Moldova and his two accomplices were able to escape. The man who was injured during his arrest is still in custody of the Czech authorities.
The police now hope to be able to clarify five such cases in Austria. In addition to the two most recent coups, there are also two crimes in St. Stefan am Walde and one in Ulrichsberg. As reported, there have been three incidents in which ATMs were blown up in the Mühlviertel since August, and two more in Lower Austria. Two suspects were caught in the Netherlands in September. In recent months, there have been suspects from the Netherlands who arrive at night to commit such crimes, especially in Germany.
The number of ATM explosions in Europe has been increasing for several years. The criminal business is organized in the Netherlands around Utrecht and Amsterdam. The gangs recruited personnel from a huge pool of hundreds of young people, said Upper Austria’s state police director Andreas Pilsl. “If one or another soldier has been arrested, more will follow.” The perpetrators’ actions were “uncompromising and brutal.” They work on a division of labor and are trained on training equipment, explained the head of the Upper Austrian State Criminal Police Office, Gottfried Mitterlehner. In some cases, “several teams are sent away every night,” whose members often didn’t even know each other beforehand. They are usually not armed, said Mittlerlehner, but are still dangerous. “They’re using the car as a weapon.” The vehicles have high horsepower and are partly converted so that they can drive at 280 to 300 km/h – which is also used. The perpetrators also had hundreds of liters of fuel on board to avoid refueling stops, laser pointers that they use during chases, and large amounts of explosives for the crime itself, according to investigators. In Germany there are already cases of traffic accidents while fleeing, in which bystanders have also died, reported Pilsl.
This time the police were already on the lookout. A large contingent of officers, the Cobra and drones were in action. Nothing was said about the amounts stolen, but the damage to equipment and buildings was enormous.
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