The Dutch police arrested a notorious German criminal in Amsterdam on Tuesday morning. German media write that it concerns the 60-year-old Thomas Drach. He is suspected of committing three armed robberies on money transports in Germany. In 1996 he kidnapped industrialist Jan Philipp Reemtsma. He was released after paying (converted) more than 16 million euros in ransom.

German media write that Drach and others committed three cash in transit robberies with automatic rifles in 2018 and 2019, including at IKEA stores in Cologne and Frankfurt and at Cologne / Bonn airport. Millions were captured. Some money runners were seriously injured by bullets. The robbers always used cars that had been stolen in the Netherlands.

The Hamburg millionaire Reemtsma was released after more than a month after the family had paid the ransom without the knowledge of the police. Drach traveled to Uruguay and other South American countries, among others, with part of the ransom. He was arrested in Argentina in 1998 and after a few years extradited to Germany. He was eventually sentenced to 14 years in prison. 1.5 million euros of the ransom has been found. Several fellow kidnappers have since died. He was released in 2013.

Drach is said to have been arrested in the Frederik Hendrikbuurt in Amsterdam-West.