The headline grabbing armed robbery at the PokerStars European Poker Tour event in Berlin, in which thieves made off with around €242,000 in poker tournament prize money, was almost a fortnight ago and despite a suspect being arrested and released last week, German police were no closer to a breakthrough in solving the case.
However, authorities were gifted the opportunity to close the case on Monday, when one of the four men who committed the crime turned himself in.
The twenty-one year old German man came forward and confessed to taking part in the raid, before naming his three accomplices and agreeing to pay back his share of the stolen money, which has yet to be recovered. The man told officers that the loot had been divided up equally, immediately after the robbery.
He also told investigators of how the gang had cased the venue in advance, noting the location of the guards and where the money was secured, fuelling rumours in the online poker world about a possible “inside job”. The criminals had realised that the guards were unarmed and decided to take their chances. PokerStars will no doubt be furious with those comments, having already blamed the tournament’s organisers, Spielbank Berlin, for the decision to deploy unarmed guards.
The other three gang members were named as Ahmad el-Awayti, a twenty year old of unknown nationality, Turkish citizen Mustafa Ucarkus, also aged twenty and Jihad Chetwie, a nineteen year old German. Arrest warrants have been issued and photographs of the men have been released. All three are believed to be known by police due to previous offences, including robbery.
Police had seemed no closer to solving the case, despite arresting a man of “Arabic origin” at the end of last week. The suspect had to be released as there was insufficient evidence to take proceedings any further. Authorities had also recovered a car used in the crime, a Mercedes, but other evidence was proving difficult to find until the confession of the young German man.
The heist has catapulted poker into the mainstream headlines and in the aftermath of the European Poker Tour event, eventual winner Kevin MacPhee appeared on several US TV channels recalling his version of events. Other large media publications such as the Wall Street Journal and Time magazine featured the story, as well as international newspapers, from Australia to the UK.
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