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Most wanted

May 29, 2009

One of Germany’s most wanted criminals, bank robber and alleged blackmailer Thomas Wolf, has been apprehended by police in Hamburg's Reeperbahn district after a nine year manhunt.

https://p.dw.com/p/Hzmv
Thomas Wolf
Bank robber Wolf absconded from a prison in 2000

Wolf, who was serving a sentence for bank robbery when he disappeared while on temporary release from the Moers-Kapellen prison in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2000, gave himself up after police moved in on his location at a restaurant in the infamous nightclub area of Hamburg on Thursday evening.

Hamburg police, assisted by members of the Federal Criminal Investigation Bureau (BKA), arrested Wolf at 18:30 local time after receiving an anonymous tip.

Police suspect Wolf of committing more crimes during his time on the run, including the kidnap of a banker's wife in Wiesbaden earlier this year, which resulted in the payment of a 1.8 million-euro ($2.5 million) ransom.

It is thought that the 56-year old native of Duesseldorf, who could have evaded capture by posing as an Englishman, Irishman or Scandinavaian, regularly changed location throughout Germany and lived under assumed names during his time on the run.

As of Thursday night, it was thought Wolf was still being held in Hamburg before an expected transfer to a prison in Frankfurt.

nda/dpa/AP
Editor: Chuck Penfold