Elite garda units swoop on gang in €100,000 tiger kidnap
Issued : 31 May 2010
Irish Independent
A man was in garda custody last night after armed officers intercepted a bag of ransom cash following a tiger kidnap in Dublin.
Detectives from the force's Organised Crime Unit and the Emergency Response Unit forced a car to stop on the southside of the city, recovered the stolen money and detained a suspect.
The gang, who are well- known to gardai and based on the southside and in west Dublin, had demanded slightly over €100,000 from a bank official after kidnapping his partner and holding her hostage for more than five hours.
The ordeal for the couple began before 6.30am when five armed and masked men forced their way into their home at Ballyfermot Road in Ballyfermot and held them at gunpoint.
They told the official, who is employed at the Kimmage branch of the Ulster Bank, that his partner was being kidnapped and that he had to arrange the collection of the ransom and await further instructions.
The official was given a mobile phone and a collection bag and told that he would be contacted by the gang around 11am. His partner was bundled into the boot of a car and driven away while the official was warned that he must obey instructions if he did not want his partner to be harmed.
The official made his way to the bank and waited for the telephone call.
Following discussions between senior Ulster Bank management and the garda authorities, a series of planned measures were put in place.
Garda security supremo, deputy Commissioner Martin Callinan ordered his crisis management team into action and officers from the Organised Crime Unit, Emergency Response Unit, National Surveillance Unit and National Bureau of Criminal Investigation were deployed in the city.
The Ulster Bank also deployed its team of officials, specially trained in how to cope with a tiger kidnap and they liaised with the gardai's crime and security section in the Phoenix Park during the operation.
After he received his instructions on the phone, the official took a bag of money, put it into his car and drove to the pre-arranged collection spot on the southside.
As soon as the official had driven away, a member of the kidnap gang snatched the cash and made off in a car. He contacted other gang members, who then released the official's partner.
The terrified woman had been driven around in the car for hours and she was set free near the Fairyhouse racecourse at Ratoath, Co Meath, around midday.
The badly traumatised but unhurt victim made her way to a house in the Steeplechase Court estate in Fairyhouse, identified herself and the gardai were alerted.
A fleet of garda cars then began to move in after they learned that the woman had been set free.
In the meantime, the bag of cash had been switched to another car in Ballymount and gardai set up a cordon of cars in the area as they started to corner the suspect vehicle.
Armed officers decided to intercept the car near the Submarine pub at Kimmage Road West and forced it to a halt.
The driver of the car was ordered out of the car at gunpoint and told to hold his hands in the air.
The money was found inside the vehicle. The suspect, who is in his 20s, is from the Dolphin's Barn area.
The suspect was detained and taken to Crumlin garda station for questioning under section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act.
He can be held without charge for up to seven days under the legislation, which was brought in as part of the crackdown on gang crime.
Justice Minister Dermot Ahern last night paid tribute to the work of the gardai in resolving what he called "this dreadful, traumatic incident for the couple caught up in it".
But Mr Larry Broderick, general secretary of IBOA The Finance Union, said the attempted robbery of the Ulster Bank represented a further example of the return of a disturbing trend that was causing anxiety and concern to bank staff throughout the country
Tom Brady Security Editor
