Simon Hunter
POLICE in Spain’s Catalunya region have put out a request for help from other forces in a bid to track down a gang that has been using explosives to blow up cash machines.
The Mossos d’Esquadra force has called on colleagues in other regions to ‘increase security measures’ given the risk of possible ‘explosions at cash machines’, according to a report in Spanish daily El Español.
There have been four such incidents, according to the police, and six months of so-far fruitless investigations.
The last incident was detected at the end of October, when there was an explosion at a bank in Marina street in Barcelona.
At the time, the modus operandi was linked to two similar attacks at branches of Bankinter, which saw the cash stored in the ATM taken from the scene.
Another such robbery was also registered in July, which is when the Mossos began to investigate.
The Catalan police previously managed to bust another gang that was using the same method, and targeting cash machines in supermarkets and petrol stations.
They would use a hose to introduce a mix of chemicals into the machines, causing them to explode. They would then hide abroad in order to complicate their detection by the authorities.
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