Bosnian Police Nab Two Ukrainian ATM Robbers but More Escape

Officers approached the two because they appeared suspicious as they hung around an ATM machine in front of a local shopping mall in the northwestern town of Bihac, the Oslobodjenje daily reported. 

Police found fake credit cards and BAM 100,000 (US$56,350) in plastic bags the suspects carried. The money was allegedly taken from Sberbank ATMs, the local prosecution office said on Tuesday.

Authorities were meanwhile informed that ATMs in several other towns were also robbed. A total of BAM2.7 million ($1.52 million) were stolen just over the weekend.

Even after the two were put in a two months detention on Monday, Sberbank reported more robberies on Tuesday, this time in the northern town of Orasje.  

Police sources told Oslobodjenje that the rest of the group managed to leave Bosnia and Herzegovina via Croatia to Hungary, driving a Toyota Rav 4.

“We believe that there was a bigger group that was visiting Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina to steal money from ATMs and we think that they took at least BAM15 million ($8.44 million),” the source told the daily.

Police in the Bosniak-Croat half of the country told OCCRP that they have joined the international investigation but that they can’t reveal more details yet.