Moldovan scooter gang blew up cash machines in Prague and Bratislava, three men detained
Prague detectives, working with Romanian and Slovak police, detained three Moldovan nationals responsible for cash machine explosions. The damage exceeds 900,000 crowns.
Moldovans blew up cash machines with explosives, fled the scene on electric scooters
Novinky.cz reports that detectives from the 1st department of Prague police have caught members of an organised gang from Moldova that repeatedly attacked cash machines using explosives in Prague and Bratislava. Total damage from one of the Prague attacks exceeded 900,000 crowns.
In early May, the perpetrators detonated a cash machine on Dobronická Street in Prague's Kunratice district and stole a box containing 300,000 crowns from it. The explosion also damaged nearby shop windows. Immediately after the crime, the attackers left the scene on electric scooters.
The group proceeded in a similar manner at the beginning of April on Opatovská Street in the Jižní Město district, where the perpetrators blew up two cash machines. One of the men was detained a week after this attack.
"Unknown perpetrators caused total damage exceeding nine hundred thousand crowns through their actions," said Richard Hrdina, spokesman for Prague police.
Due to the identical method of execution, the so-called modus operandi, detectives began investigating a connection between the two cases. "Following more detailed investigation, additional circumstances were discovered that linked both crimes together," Hrdina added. Detectives managed to identify one of the suspects from the Kunratice attack; they identified the other with help from Romanian colleagues.
In mid-June 2026, the group also struck in Bratislava, where the perpetrators detonated two more cash machines. "The method of execution and description of the perpetrators matched the crime committed in Kunratice," Hrdina confirmed. Prague detectives therefore established cooperation with Slovak and Romanian colleagues and monitored the suspects' movements within the Schengen area.
Romanian police soon discovered that the men were heading back to Slovakia. Two days later they broke into another cash machine there, but Slovak police were unable to detain them. The three suspects were eventually caught by Romanian detectives at the Romanian-Hungarian border crossing.
"In total, three persons have been detained — foreign nationals aged thirty, thirty-three and thirty-six, who are currently in extradition detention in Romania, from where they will be transferred to Slovakia as part of extradition proceedings and then will go to the Czech Republic after serving their sentence," Hrdina said.
Aleš Strach, head of the murder department, confirmed information from Aktu agency that the entire operation was directed from Moldova. The group was divided into two parts — one was responsible for the cash machines in Jižní Město, the other for the attack in Kunratice. Two men identified after the explosion in Kunratice subsequently participated, together with the third perpetrator, in the Bratislava attacks.
According to available information, the group deliberately purchased old cash machines on which they previously tested explosives and rehearsed the entire robbery procedure.
Source: Novinky.cz