They were after old treasures from the Porsche and Mercedes brands – and motorcycles. Police officers have cracked down on a suspected gang of vintage car thieves in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Düsseldorf – The police have launched an international raid against vintage car thieves. The gang is said to have stolen old Mercedes and Porsche cars and motorcycles worth almost four million euros, as the police and public prosecutor announced in Düsseldorf on Tuesday.
German police officers searched numerous objects with their colleagues in the Netherlands and Belgium. The background to the large-scale operation are investigations against the suspects for commercial and gang theft. Five arrest warrants had been executed: three in the Netherlands and two in Belgium. 700,000 euros assets should be secured.
The investigators struck twelve objects in the Heerlen area (Netherlands) and four locations in the Maasmechelen area (Belgium) at around 6 a.m. German investigators accompanied the raid. According to a spokesman, special forces were also on duty.
For some time, police officers from the “Vals” investigative commission had been on the heels of thieves because a noticeable number of old-timers disappeared in the Rhineland. A coup in Düsseldorf in mid-September 2020 should also be the result of the gang: At that time a Mercedes 280 SL, built in 1970 – known to connoisseurs as the “Pagoda”, disappeared from a garage in Düsseldorf-Reisholz.
Whether stolen cars were rediscovered in the raid on Tuesday, or if they were dismantled and cannibalized never to be seen, the police want to reveal this Wednesday in Düsseldorf. The investigation was led by the Central Office for the Prosecution of Organized Crimes (ZeOS NRW) of the Düsseldorf Public Prosecutor’s Office. dpa
