ATM bombers arrested after 'gang member' blew himself

Dutch and German police arrested nine suspects during an 18-month investigation into the gang, which has been linked to at least 15 ATM attacks in Germany, costing millions of euros in damage.One suspect was killed and another badly hurt in the Dutch city of Utrecht when a trial run went wrong at an illegal "training centre" for explosives attacks on ATMs, the EU's police agency. Europol said. Police eventually made nine arrests during 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 said.

Police in the German city of Onsabrueck became suspicious when a 29-year-old Dutch man there ordered several ATMs, claiming they were for an art project in the Netherlands. But they were delivered to a warehouse serving as a makeshift training centre in the Dutch city of Utrecht, where the man and an accomplice tested ways of blowing them up to get at the cash inside.

"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,"Europol said. The explosion happened in September 2020.The police hunt began after officers in Osnabruck, Germany, identified "suspicious orders" of ATM machines from a German company, said Europol and its sister judicial agency Eurojust in a joint statement. Surveillance led police across the border to Utrecht in the Netherlands where the 29- and 24-year-old suspects were allegedly running the training centre. Those three suspects will be extradited to Germany. The other six people were arrested in the Netherlands during the past year. Europol said that bomb attacks against ATMs were a "growing concern" in Europe.