These attacks are estimated to have caused over EUR 4 million worth of damage to the targeted premises, demonstrating that the criminals have no insight into the risk of harm, or even possibility of death, to those who lived nearby or who were near the cash machines at the time.

Europol support 

Europol’s European Serious Organised Crime Centre supported the investigation from the onset by bringing together the national investigators from Germany and the Netherlands to establish a joint strategy and to organise the intensive exchange of evidence needed to prepare for final phase of the investigation. 

A Europol expert was also deployed to Amsterdam to assist the national investigators with the action day. 

Life-threatening 

Law enforcement is increasing concerned about the increasingly heavier explosives that criminals are using to gain access to the cash machines’ content

These explosions are putting at risk the lives of local residents and bystanders: the surrounding buildings can collapse, or fragments of the explosion hit passers-by. 

In some cases, the perpetrators also escape the crime scene in powerful motorised vehicles at high speed (250 km/h), causing a serious risk to public safety. 

The following authorities took part in this investigation:


Germany: Police Directorate of Osnabrück, Public Prosecutor’s Office Osnabrück, Public Prosecutor’s Office Mainz, LKA Rhineland-Palatinate, General Public Prosecutor’s Office Frankfurt, LKA Hesse, Police Department of Mittelhessen, Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt) 
The Netherlands: National Police Amsterdam, Public Prosecutor’s Office 
Belgium: Federal Judicial Police Eupen 


This investigation was carried out with the financial support of the European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats (EMPACT) and the Internal Security Fund SWORD. 

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