By A. S.
Organised crime gangs, mainly made up of Moroccan migrants, have been blowing up ATMs in Germany and the Netherlands in professional robberies. According to Remix News, they blew around five hundred ATMs in 2022, setting a new record.
Individual ATMs are expected to contain between €50,000 and €100,000 in cash. This is being exploited by these gangs, who are carefully planning their ATM robberies and putting lives at risk by blowing up ATMs. The explosives they use are said to be so powerful that when they blow up an ATM, they severely damage the entire building. Although official figures have not yet been released, according to some police sources, five hundred machines have been blown up in the past year. This is an increase in these robberies, as there were 414 cases of ATMs being blown up in 2021. Gangs of this type are said to be most active in western Germany, but also in the Netherlands and sometimes in France.
They target mainly ATMs of banks located close to motorways, which allows them to escape quickly, but most often in the early hours of the morning when there is not much traffic on the roads. They work in groups, with each individual playing a specific role. The damage they cause is often far greater than the amount stolen. Buildings suffer a lot of damage and in some cases the occupants have to be evacuated.