Criminals are looting millions from ATMs in Europe. This is why Germany is a prime target

In the early hours of Thursday, March 23, 2023, residents of the German city of Kronberg were woken from their sleep by several explosions.

Criminals had blown up an ATM located beneath an apartment building in the city center.

The attack caused serious damage to the building and forced the evacuation of residents. According to local media reports, witnesses saw people dressed in dark clothing fleeing in a black car towards a nearby highway.

During the robbery, thieves stole 130,000 euros in cash. They also caused an estimated half a million euros in additional damage, according to a report by the German Federal Criminal Police Office, BKA.

Instead of staging dramatic and risky bank robberies, criminal groups in Europe have focused on these attacks ATMs as an easier and less important target.

In Germany – Europe’s largest economy – thieves have blown up more than one ATM per day in recent years. In a country where Cash is still a common means of paymentthe thefts can prove incredibly lucrative, with criminals pocketing hundreds of thousands of euros in a single attack.

Europol has cracked down on the robberies. carrying out major cross-border operations aimed at eliminating the well-organized criminal gangs behind them.

Earlier this month, authorities from Germany, France and the Netherlands arrested three members of a criminal network who carried out attacks on ATMs using explosives, Europol said in a statement.

Detainees are believed to have looted millions of euros since 2022 and suffered a similar amount of property damage between 2022 and 2024, Europol said.

The criminal network used locations in France as “hiding places” and relied on getaway cars rented from a French rental company, the statement said.

The arrests came as part of a wider operation by German, French and Dutch investigators, with law enforcement officers also searching car rental companies whose vehicles had been used to flee crime scenes, during a ‘day of action’ at locations in the three countries.

Europol says the perpetrators mainly used solid explosives, mainly from fireworks, to detonate the cash-filled machines – a dangerous tactic that causes heavy damage. According to BKA, looting in Germany alone caused 28.4 million euros in secondary damage in 2023.

The gangs, often based in the Netherlands, “take extreme risks and act unscrupulously,” Europol says, both during the robberies themselves and the subsequent escapes in high-powered vehicles.

The ATMs chosen are often located in quieter residential areas, making them easier targets. According to Europol, this means that they cause serious damage to buildings and residents. The attacks can crumble building facades and spread shards of glass.

In some cases they can even be fatal.

On November 11, an ATM robbery in the city of Wiernsheim in the German state of Baden-Württemberg ended in disaster. After stealing 40,000 euros in cash, a criminal trio from the Netherlands tried to escape at high speed in a VW Golf with stolen license plates, local media report. Pursued by the police, they drove in the wrong direction onto the German highway A6.

Two of the three criminals were arrested at a rest stop, but the 30-year-old Dutch driver managed to escape and continued to drive against traffic at speeds of up to 200 kilometers per hour until he collided head-on with a van.

The driver and passenger in the truck were both seriously injured; the passenger died in hospital days later. The driver, who was also seriously injured, was arrested and later sentenced to life in prison.

Rising crime

Germany has become Europe’s top target for ATM bombings. And with his penchant for cash payments, it’s not hard to see why.

The country has more than 51,000 ATMs. For comparison: the Netherlands has about 5,000. According to the central bank Bundesbank, the majority of Germany’s 83.3 million citizens do not have to travel further than one kilometer to reach the nearest ATM.

Unlike its European neighbors, who have largely switched from cash payments due to the Covid-19 pandemicCash still plays an important role in Germany. According to the Bundesbank, half of all transactions in 2023 were carried out with banknotes and coins.

Germans have a cultural bond with cash and traditionally consider it a secure payment method. Some say it allows for a greater level of privacy and gives them more control over their spending.

A 2016 Bundesbank study found that cash is particularly prevalent among older generations of Germans, meaning memories of the country’s turbulent recent history linger could play a role in Germany’s reluctance to go digital.

“Neither digitalization nor the pandemic has succeeded in displacing cash. When it comes to making payments, cash is still by far the most popular means of payment in Germany,” the Bundesbank’s Johannes Beermann said in a 2022 post-pandemic press release.

In terms of location, Germany is also an ideal target for cross-border crime: it borders the Netherlands and is connected by highways, some of which have no speed limits.

A decline in the number of ATMs in the Netherlands and the introduction of improved security measures to tackle crime – including the installation of adhesive protection systems that can render banknotes worthless – has also led Dutch criminals to look further afield, according to Reuters. quote Dutch police.

A 2023 BKA report notes that ATM robberies in Germany have increased since 2005, although they fell slightly between 2022 and 2023. Yet Germany recorded a total of 461 such robberies in 2023 – the second highest number since investigations began in 2005.

The report also shows that, as in previous years, thefts fell during the summer months of 2023 – when longer daylight hours bring a greater risk of arrest. According to BKA, the majority of crimes took place on weekdays, between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m.

A spokesperson for the German Banking Industry Committee, which represents all major banking associations in Germany, told CNN: “Germany maintains one of Europe’s most extensive ATM networks…

“This extensive network has in part attracted organized crime groups from abroad, who see the density of ATMs and German demand for access to cash as factors in their favor.”

German banks have invested more than 300 million euros in enhanced security to tackle the problem, the spokesperson continued, including “alarm systems, inkblot solutions, reinforced locking mechanisms and fog technology.” However, certain techniques, such as gluing systems to neutralize stolen cash, are currently not allowed in Germany, the spokesperson added.

“These efforts, together with better cooperation with the police, have effectively reduced the number of attacks on ATMs, with the Federal Criminal Investigation Department (BKA) reporting that the figures for 2024 are already ‘significantly lower than those of last year’,” the statement said. spokesman.

In July, the German government announced that ATM robberies would be punished more severely. Thieves must be sentenced to a minimum of two years in prison, while the previous minimum sentence was one year. If the health of an uninvolved person or persons is affected, the perpetrators should receive a prison sentence of five to 15 years, compared to at least two years previously.

“Anyone who blows up ATMs risks the lives of uninvolved people,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said.

“We are dealing with unscrupulous perpetrators and very dangerous explosives. These acts should therefore be punished more severely.”

For more CNN news and newsletters, create an account at CNN.com