Thomas Drach

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Thomas Drach (born 1960 in Cologne ) is a multiple convicted German violent criminal . He has been known to the general public since 1996 as the suspected main perpetrator of the Reemtsma kidnapping . He has been on trial for 4 robberies since February 1, 2022.

Youth and first offenses

Drach grew up with his brother Lutz, who was almost a year younger, in Erftstadt near Cologne . His father was a manager at Mielewerke , his mother worked as a secretary. According to his mother, he became interested in cars when he was 12 years old. He was first picked up by the police when he was 13 for breaking into cars. Nevertheless, Drach was never violent as a child or fought with other children, only a penchant for big performances was noticeable at that time. After he had to leave high school because of poor performance, Drach began an apprenticeship as a car mechanic , which he gave up again. At the age of 18 he robbed a supermarket. In 1981, together with his brother, he carried out a sensational robbery on a savings bank in Cologne. They drove a car through the glass front to the counters, threatened employees with shotguns and demanded money. The two brothers were arrested shortly thereafter. In the same year the father left the family. While Thomas Drach was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison in 1982, his brother Lutz had to serve ten years in prison. After his release, Drach was accused of criminal business in Eastern Europe, he commuted regularly between Cologne and Budapest . There he appeared with a fake Hungarian passport as Sandor Dulai, occasionally using the pseudonym Piet Hellmann.

The Reemtsma kidnapping

course

On March 25, 1996, Drach and his accomplices kidnapped the Hamburg sociologist and tobacco heir Jan Philipp Reemtsma from his property in Hamburg, leaving behind a ransom note of DM 20 million . The letter had been weighed down with a hand grenade. Reemtsma was being held in a basement at the time, where he was chained and threatened with mutilation by Drach. After two money transfers failed due to the obvious police presence, Drach, as head of the gang, increased the demand to 30 million DM, payable in German and Swiss currency . With the help of the evangelical pastor Christian Arndt, the Kiel sociologist Lars Clausen and the Hamburg social worker Michael Herrmann, the money could be handed over without the knowledge of the police. After 33 days in captivity, Reemtsma was released on April 26. In parting, Drach said to his victim: "You are experiencing the luxury version of a kidnapping."

escape

Hamburg remand prison

Drach rented a boarding house in Cologne on April 27, two days after the money was handed over. On May 25, he went to France and booked a flight to Venezuela at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris . From there he traveled first to Cuba and finally to Uruguay , where he is believed to have had the ransom or parts of it laundered and lived a lavish lifestyle. He lived in a villa guarded by guards and dogs, for which he paid $30,000 a month. Drach made various car purchases, always using his new identity, Anthony Lawlor from Great Britain. Almost two years after his escape, contact with a friend from their times together in the Rheinbach prison became his undoing. The Vaals man's phone was bugged. In the first phone call on March 25, 1998, Drach stated that he wanted to attend a concert "of the most famous rock group in the world". The call was made from a cell phone and could only be pinpointed to the greater Buenos Aires area. Since there was a concert by the Rolling Stones , Drach's favorite band, the German investigators informed the Argentine authorities and asked them to check all visitors. This became unnecessary when Thomas Drach phoned his friend in Vaals a second time on March 26th. This time he used the clearly located phone in a hotel room and spoke openly about possibilities of money laundering .

At around 1:30 am on March 28, 1998, a special squad of Argentine police stormed Drach's hotel room and arrested him. Because of his forged British passport, a judge ruled that Drach should first answer charges of document forgery in Argentina. In the same year, attempts at bribery were made known to Drach in order to be released into freedom. Only when more than two years later, on July 19, 2000, the then Argentine President Fernando de la Rúa ordered his extradition, was Drach handed over to the German authorities on July 29 and taken to the Hamburg pre-trial detention center.

sentencing and imprisonment

After charges were brought against Drach in late August 2000, the trial began on December 13. After 15 days of trial, Drach was found guilty of extortion kidnapping and sentenced to 14 years and six months in prison. The verdict was just short of the prosecutor's demand for 15 years in prison. In the explanatory statement, Drach's refusal to provide information about the whereabouts of the ransom and his lack of remorse were aggravated. During the trial, Drach had constantly complained about the expensive courses in money laundering and the poor prison conditions in Argentina and, because of the “inhuman” conditions there, applied for a credit of 1:3 for the time he had served there. During the trial, he was repeatedly cynical about the victim: "The fact that Mr. Reemtsma is sitting here today so unharmed is solely thanks to the level-headed perpetrators." They could have cut off the victim's finger as a warning. "However, we opted for the milder option and only increased the ransom by 10 million marks."

On November 25, 2002, Drach's younger brother Lutz was arrested in Madrid as he was about to fly to South America. He was transferred to the detention center in Aachen and later sentenced to five years in prison for aiding and abetting money laundering. In 2006, the judges corrected the verdict on appeal to six and a half years.

When Thomas Drach was supposed to have blood and saliva samples taken in prison, he refused and lodged a complaint. In his letter, he justifies the refusal by saying that no further criminal offenses are to be expected from him, “since I have earned enough money”. When his application was rejected, Drach was asked to submit the samples again. He fought back and threatened with a raised hand. On April 14, 2004, a court sentenced him to three more months in prison for resisting prison officers. He was also on trial in February 2006 for the same offense and attempted coercion. His sentence was again extended by three months and two weeks. In August 2007, after serving two-thirds of his sentence, Drach asked for early release. At the court hearing, he offered $450,000 in "compensation." His request was denied because the detainee continued to pose a threat to the community, as evidenced by his abuses in prison. In addition, he shows no remorse and would refuse to provide information about the whereabouts of the ransom. In 2008, Drach was transferred from Fuhlsbüttel prison to Billwerder prison because of the risk of escaping . In July 2009, an application for early release was again rejected.

Planned raid on Lutz Drach

Lutz Drach was released from prison in May 2009. As early as February of the same year, two letters from Thomas Drach aroused the suspicions of the prison officers. In the first letter he wrote to his friend Hans-Georg M.: "If you have nothing to do, then intercept my brother. He has six months to raise 30 million euros.” The second noteworthy letter was addressed to his mother. He complained that his brother was living at his expense and called him a "stupid cowardly loser pig". He should pay him back his money plus interest: "The parasite cost me 75 million euros and 14 years of my life." When his mother picks up Lutz from prison, she should take Hans with her.

In mid-2011, prosecutors then brought charges of attempted incitement to extortion . She sees it as proven that Lutz Drach was kidnapped immediately after his release and forced to raise money. Drach denied the allegations and described his brother as "a small employee of mine" who was not able to meet the money demands. However, Thomas Drach stated that his brother had invested money wrongly and therefore owed him five to six million euros. Drach stated that after his planned release from prison in July 2012, he wanted to return to South America. According to investigators from October 2011, a large part of the ransom, the equivalent of 16 million euros , was still missing at that time. The public prosecutor stated that if he was convicted and sentenced to more than two years in prison, he would make use of his option to apply for subsequent preventive detention. Although the court saw it as proven that Drach planned the act, it did not meet the prosecutor's required sentence. On November 8, it only extended the term by one year and three months. In the verdict, it was said that it was an "act between two crooks". The appeal filed by Drach against this conviction was rejected by the Federal Court of Justice on June 19, 2012 as obviously unfounded.

dismissal

Thomas Drach was released from prison in October 2013 and was picked up from prison by his lawyer. According to the Hamburg judicial authority, he had announced before his release that he wanted to leave Germany. This enabled him to partially circumvent the conditions for his release from prison, since electronic ankle bracelets do not have to be worn abroad, for example . After his release from prison, Drach lived for a while on the Balearic island of Ibiza with a friend from prison days. His presumed last money deposit was found in 2013 in a safe deposit box in Uruguay by private investigators. It included $459,900. Jan Philipp Reemtsma got this money back. It is believed that Drach has not had any money from the kidnapping since then.

Possible involvement in robberies

In February 2021, Drach was arrested in Amsterdam . He is accused of robbing a money transporter near Cologne/Bonn Airport together with accomplices in March 2019. He is also considered a suspect in two similar raids on money transporters at the Ikea furniture store in Cologne-Godorf in March 2018 and at Ikea in Frankfurt-Nieder-Eschbach in November 2019. At the airport and in Frankfurt am Main, a security guard was seriously injured by the use of firearms.

After Drach's arrest in the Netherlands, the Cologne public prosecutor's office filed an extradition request . A Dutch court granted this request on May 4, 2021. In May 2021, Drach was extradited to Germany and is now being held in the Cologne JVA for the duration of the public prosecutor's investigation . In September 2021, the Cologne public prosecutor filed charges against Drach for the raids. She accuses him of attempted murder and particularly aggravated robbery, among other things. The trial, which is taking place in Cologne Regional Court , began on February 1, 2022; a verdict is expected in September 2022.

itemizations

  1. ↑ Thomas Drach trial: One of Germany's most dangerous criminals - Panorama - SZ.de on sueddeutsche.de, February 1, 2022
  2. ↑ a b Career in the Cologne milieu. In: n-tv . March 8, 2001, retrieved February 23, 2021 .
  3. ↑ The Silent. In: Stern.de . October 22, 2004, retrieved February 23, 2021 .
  4. ↑ Martin Jenssen: "He became so aggressive in prison". In: The World . 19 October 2011, retrieved 23 February 2021 .
  5. ↑ a b Julia Jüttner: The prevented millionaire. In: The Mirror . October 13, 2011, retrieved February 23, 2021 .
  6. ↑ a b c Julia Jüttner: "Thomas thinks Lutz has the money". In: The Mirror. 18 October 2011, retrieved 23 February 2021 .
  7. ↑ André Zand-Vakili: Reemtsma kidnappers apparently want revenge. In: The World. November 23, 2007, retrieved February 23, 2021 .
  8. ↑ Reemtsma case: trail leads to Hungary ( Memento of February 27, 2016 at the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ Sabine Rückert: The Carnival of Evil. In: The Time . January 21, 2001, retrieved February 23, 2021 .
  10. ↑ a b "After prison, a life of luxury". In: faz.net . March 8, 2001, retrieved February 23, 2021 .
  11. ↑ Reemtsma: The blunders of the "mastermind". In: Focus Online . 29 August 2013, retrieved 23 February 2021 .
  12. ↑ Ulrich Jaeger: Own shower. In: The Mirror. 5 June 2000, retrieved 23 February 2021 .
  13. ↑ Thomas the Phantom. In: The Mirror. April 6, 1998, retrieved February 23, 2021 .
  14. ↑ Will Drach be deported? In: The Mirror. October 11, 1999, retrieved February 23, 2021 .
  15. ↑ Drach is back in Hamburg. In: The Mirror. 29 July 2000, retrieved 23 February 2021 .
  16. ↑ Gisela Friedrichsen: "The optics of the victim". In: The Mirror. March 12, 2001, retrieved February 23, 2021 .
  17. ↑ Elke Silberer: The silent hunt for the millions. In: Stern.de. 20 December 2002, retrieved 23 February 2021 .
  18. ↑ Accomplice of Reemtsma kidnapper Drach caught. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . 17 May 2010, retrieved 23 February 2021 .
  19. ↑ Six and a half years in prison for Lutz Drach. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . April 25, 2006, retrieved February 1, 2022 .
  20. ↑ Detention extension for "unteachable" dragon. In: faz.net. April 14, 2004, retrieved February 23, 2021 .
  21. ↑ Thomas Drach wanted to buy freedom. In: The World. 18 October 2011, retrieved 23 February 2021 .
  22. ↑ Drach describes the procedure as "silly theater". In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. October 13, 2011, retrieved February 23, 2021 .
  23. ↑ Ralf Wiegand: Reemtsma kidnapper planned second kidnapping. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. October 7, 2011, retrieved February 23, 2021 .
  24. ↑ Hans Holzhaider: "Everything he has belongs to me". In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. October 14, 2011, retrieved February 23, 2021 .
  25. ↑ Martin Jenssen: Drach threatens with Kalashnikov. In: The World. 18 October 2011, retrieved 23 February 2021 .
  26. ↑ "You don't have to be afraid of him". In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. 18 October 2011, retrieved 23 February 2021 .
  27. ↑ Thomas Drach threatened "faggots" with Kalashnikov. In: The World. October 17, 2011, retrieved February 23, 2021 .
  28. ↑ Reemtsma kidnapper Drach sentenced to 15 months. In: The Mirror. November 8, 2001, retrieved February 23, 2021 .
  29. ↑ Reemtsma kidnapper Drach freed after 15 years in prison - and left the country. In: The Standard . October 21, 2013, retrieved February 23, 2021 .
  30. ↑ Per Hinrichs: Jan Philipp Reemtsma's kidnapper is broke. In: The World. March 6, 2016, retrieved February 23, 2021 .
  31. ↑ Thomas Drach arrested: These cases are blamed on Reemtsma kidnappers. In: Stern.de. February 23, 2021, retrieved February 23, 2021 .
  32. ↑ Captured robber is Reemtsma kidnapper Drach. In: n-tv . February 23, 2021, retrieved February 23, 2021 .
  33. ↑ Reemtsma kidnapper remains in Dutch custody for the time being. In: Faz.net. 24 February 2021, retrieved 11 May 2021 .
  34. ↑ Reemtsma kidnapper Drach extradited. In: deutschlandfunk.de. 4 May 2021, retrieved 11 May 2021 .
  35. ↑ Reemtsma kidnapper Drach extradited to Germany. In: tagesschau.de. 11 May 2021, retrieved 11 May 2021 .
  36. ↑ Raids on money transporters Charges against Reemtsma kidnapper Drach , Tagesschau, September 23, 2021.
  37. ↑ Peter Burghardt: To be continued. Süddeutsche Zeitung , February 1, 2022, retrieved on the same day.
  38. ↑ Trial against Thomas Drach in Cologne . Cologne Review . February 1, 2022. Retrieved February 1, 2022.
personal data
SURNAME Dragon, Thomas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dulai, Sandor; Hellman, Piet; Lawlor, Anthony
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German criminal
BIRTH DATE 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne