A pizzeria in Sereď (Trnava Region) that was burnt down early on Thursday, April 28, belongs to the girlfriend of Ján G., a man recently detained by police and alleged to be the boss of the so-called cashpoint mafia, the TASR newswire reported.
According to the spokesman of the Fire and Rescue Corps in Trnava, the woman suffered shock and had to be treated by a medical team. The fire kept 20 firefighters from Sereď and the nearby town of Galanta busy for several hours. Ján G. and two other men have been charged with stealing seven cashpoints across Slovakia, while two accomplices are believed to still be on the run. It has been suggested that the group may have been involved in as many as 30 such cashpoint thefts. The men were arrested in Sereď last month, with the police finding a Porsche Cayenne that was allegedly used to pull ATMs from their locations using explosives and chains.
Even though two members of the gang were on the Canary Islands at the time of the raid, the police could not wait any longer, said Police president Jaroslav Spišiak. He added that an international arrest warrant has been issued for the two.
The perpetrators were reportedly armed and well organised; they used accompanying vehicles and walkie-talkies. Moreover, their cars were equipped with devices for interfering with the signals of mobile operators and GPS devices, Spišiak said. He added that the police were investigating a possible connection between the gang and an explosion and robbery of a safe in a Galanta bank, and the murder of businessman M.K. in Galanta, who was shot dead in his car several months ago.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
