19/02/2010

Separate Arrests Target Gangsters

Police officers on both sides of the border are targeting both kidnap and extortion attacks and the large number of ram-raid thefts of cash machines.

In separate operations, gardaí investigating a so-called 'tiger kidnapping' in Dublin last month have arrested seven people, while four men being questioned about recent ATM thefts in Northern Ireland have been released pending further enquiries.

The men freed by the PSNI are aged, 19, 20, 27 and 35, and were arrested initially in Co Tyrone on Wednesday.

Two were arrested in Fintona, one in Fivemiletown and the fourth in Dungannon.

Police said they were also questioned about other criminal activity as well as the ATM thefts.

In Dublin meanwhile, the police have been busy in relation to an early January incident when a security guard and two members of his family were taken hostage, leading to the theft of more than €100,000.

The Brinks Allied employee was targeted by a gang of four masked and armed men who entered his home off Bath Avenue in Irishtown, Dublin, at 6.30am.

They took his mother, who is in her 70s, and niece hostage and forced him to drive to the Bank of Ireland on O'Connell Street where his company was delivering cash yesterday morning. They also gave him a mobile phone.

The robbery appeared to be well planned as the gang knew a cash delivery was due, and they also knew where the kidnapped man and his family lived.

The employee obtained a quantity of cash from the bank and was directed to go to a hotel car park in Drumcondra in a white Renault van, where he left the vehicle.

He then took a Dart to Bray where he alerted gardaí to the disappearance of the money.

His mother and niece were held captive for about six hours before they were released in the Newvale Crescent estate in Shankill, south Dublin.

As a result of their investigations, gardaí arrested five men and two women after conducting 18 searches in counties Dublin, Meath and Wexford.

Officers from the Dublin South Central Division supported by members of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Special Detective Unit and Organised Crime Unit carried out the searches.

The seven arrested, aged between 25 and 35, are being held at Donnybrook, Pearse Street, Harcourt Terrace, Kevin Street and Kilmainham, Crumlin, Irishtown Garda stations.

They are being detained under Section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act, 2007.

(BMcC/GK)

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