Dusseldorf (dpa / lnw) – North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) has not been satisfied with the problem of increased machine blasting in the country – but sees progress. “I’m not satisfied with the result. We’re much further than a few years ago, but not good enough,” he said on Thursday at a meeting of the interior committee in the Düsseldorf state parliament. However, it is difficult to take action against the perpetrators. “The willingness to take risks of the guys who are out there is so gigantic that we can’t keep up,” the minister said. In the current year, 171 perpetrators have tried to blow up and rob ATMs in North Rhine-Westphalia. According to Reul, around 40 percent of them were just attempts. 21 suspects were arrested by early December.
In addition to NRW, other federal states are now also affected: the number of blasts has increased in Lower Saxony and Hesse in particular. In 2020, almost half of all cases took place in NRW, in 2022 it will be around one in three. The three federal states had therefore founded a joint interest group to exchange information on preventive measures. Reul stated that he also regularly exchanges information with the Dutch authorities, since the majority of the perpetrators come from the neighboring state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
