Special garda unit to reform

GARDAÍ are to revamp a specialist unit tasked with combating cash-in-transit robberies, it emerged yesterday. The decision follows last week’s €2.4 million heist in north Dublin and a €2.1m raid in west Dublin a fortnight previously.

Senior gardaí are recruiting 20 new detectives to Operation Delivery, which had considerable success against armed raiders last year. The unit was set up last June by Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy in response to a surge of cash- in-transit robberies.

There were 26 raids following the establishment of Operation Delivery, between July and December last year, compared to 38 raids in the previous six months.

The unit came close to being suspended last December, but was kept on for another month pending an assessment of its effectiveness.

The operation draws two detectives from each of the six Dublin garda divisions, in addition to eight officers from the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI).

Meanwhile, gardaí have drawn up a short list of prime suspects who may have been behind the two multi-million robberies.

One suspect is a notorious crime family originally from Sheriff Street, in Dublin’s north inner city.

The gang is headed by a man and his brother, who gained notoriety for armed robberies in the 1980s. They since moved into drug dealing and became one of the biggest traffickers of cocaine in north Dublin.

The head of the gang lives in a luxurious house in Swords, north Dublin, while his brother lives in Finglas.

The gang was hit in January 2003 when 1.25kg of cocaine were seized in Sheriff Street. A sister of the brothers was charged and CAB hit the leader with a tax demand.

Another suspect is another top drug dealer, also based in north Dublin. He is said to be on the garda suspect list in connection with the kidnapping of Securicor security guard Paul Richardson and his wife and the theft of €2.1m from Mr Richardson’s security van.

Two brothers from Finglas, north Dublin, are also suspects for the robberies.

While gardaí remain open to the possibility that the raids are linked, detectives suspect separate gangs were involved.

Officers from the NBCI will this week continue interviewing people connected in any way with the Brinks Allied van raided last Wednesday.

Given that the van was supposed to have been empty on Wednesday morning and only suddenly collected cash on Tuesday evening, gardaí will investigate whether inside information was passed on to raiders.