Expert: ATM Bombers Use "Pizza Slice Method"

Successes have already been recorded; after an incident in Vienna in early April and another in Gmunden in Upper Austria, several Dutch nationals were arrested. A criminologist explained the approach of such perpetrators in the Ö1 morning journal and spoke of a "pizza slice method."

This involves "small, flat explosive devices" that, according to Dutch criminologist Jasper van der Kemp from the Free University of Amsterdam, are placed in the part of the ATM where the money comes out. A criminal organization known in the media as the "Mocro-Mafia," which is suspected to be behind the bombings in Austria, also originates from the Netherlands. SOKO leader Dieter Csefan recalled the activities of such groups in their homeland during a background discussion. When the cash machines there were better secured, the perpetrators began to move into the German-speaking area, explained the head of the department for combating organized and general crime at the BK.

Bombing Series Began in Utrecht with Gasoline

Van der Kemp mentioned Utrecht as the starting point of the now cross-border bombing series to Ö1. This began about 15 years ago, and initially, gasoline was used for the bombings, according to the expert. Then devices in the Netherlands were modified in such a way "that gasoline could no longer be filled in to blow them up" - and so the "pizza slice method" came into use.

Whatever method the ATM bombers use, Austria aims to make their criminal activities as difficult as it has already been done in their homeland. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) mentioned in early April, for example, the renewal of dye systems in ATMs or the installation of fogging systems that could be triggered by AI-supported suspicious movements. For the Dutch expert, these are all "useful measures," but the most effective in the Netherlands has been "making ATMs as inaccessible as possible at night."

(APA/Red)

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