Suspected ATM robbers arrested in big police operation
Five Swedish suspects linked to several cash machine explosions
|
|
|
A massive police operation, involving over 100 officers, led to the arrest of a criminal gang which blew up a cash machine at Pyhäjärvi in North Ostrobothnia in the early hours of Tuesday.
The ATM, on the wall of a local bank, was blown up at 3:35 in the morning.
The suspects, five Swedish men, were caught by police near Rautavaara in North Savo at 7:00 in the morning.
The same perpetrators are believed to have been behind at least some of the robberies targeting ATMs earlier this year.
The explosion and robbery at Pyhäjärvi on Tuesday morning was the sixth in the past three months.
Police were on to the gang and were waiting for a new attack.
Swedish police assisted with information of their own.
“We knew more or less what the area would be where they would operate”, said Detective Inspector Teijo Ristola of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
The police could not arrest the members of the group because under current legislation, preparing to commit a crime is not against the law.
“Once again, the police looked on powerless as the criminals tested setting off an explosive charge and rehearsed the various getaway routes”, Ristola says.
The arrest was a massive operation when the time came, involving the NBI, several local police departments, as well as the Border Guard and the Defence Forces.
The suspects were detained by the Karhu special operations team of the Helsinki Police Department.
The Swedish men, aged 23 to 36, gave themselves up to the police without resistance. Explosives and a weapon were found in their possession.
The task of the police will now be to determine just how many ATM robberies the arrested individuals have been responsible for.
In two cases of the six, the modus operandi were different from the other four, and the perpetrators left empty-handed.
Two Finnish men have been held by police in connection with a case of an ATM explosion in Pulkkila last Saturday.
Helsingin Sanomat
|
| 7.10.2009 - TODAY |
 Suspected ATM robbers arrested in big police operation |
|
