After the spectacular attack on a money transporter with a loot of millions in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the perpetrators were still on the run on Friday. “And according to the current status, there was no decisive information,” said a police spokeswoman for the German Press Agency in Neubrandenburg. The search for the armed men is now running nationwide.
The masked perpetrators, armed with submachine guns, stopped and robbed a security company’s vehicle at the entrance to Autobahn 20 near Gützkow (West Pomerania-Greifswald) on Thursday morning. They stole several million euros, but the police have not yet announced the exact amount.
According to the police, they also fired shots. How often and where exactly is not yet known for tactical reasons, it said. The two employees of the security company were not injured. The “Ostseewelle” had previously reported that shooting had taken place.
Is organized crime behind it?
According to the police, the long preparations for the crime and the procedure itself speak for organized crime. For example, massive concrete parts were placed on the motorway access road as a “staged construction site”, with the help of which the money transporter was stopped and the car prevented from escaping. According to the “Ostseewelle” media report, the false construction site set up by unknown persons is said to have also been noticed by the Autobahnmeisterei and they are said to have already contacted construction companies. The police initially did not want to comment on this. The investigations were still ongoing.
After the money transporter was opened by force from the rear, it was looted and set on fire. According to the information, the perpetrators fled with their loot of millions in one of their two vehicles. They would have set the second one on fire and also set fire to the rear of the money transporter. The getaway vehicle was found burned out hours later – a few kilometers away near Müssentin – in a wooded area, along with an empty money container. There was a high probability that another getaway vehicle was waiting there, it said.
According to further findings, the robbers probably knew the company’s tours better. The attacked transport was on its way from Greifswald to the Bundesbank branch in Neubrandenburg with a large sum of money, a police spokeswoman said. The money, presumably income from business people, should probably be paid in there, it was said. The A20 Gützkow slip road is the fastest southbound connection from Greifswald to Neubrandenburg.
Even if precise information is still missing, it could be the largest sum that fell into the hands of criminals in a robbery in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. In September 2005, robbers attacked a security company in Greifswald and stole the daily income from several supermarkets and shops – according to the information at the time, 2.75 million euros.
