'Cigarette Gang’ continue to elude gardaí
The so-called Cigarette Gang, which may be behind an armed robbery in Navan, Co Meath and the theft of €20,000 in cigarettes, has eluded gardaí for the last five years.
“In areas where the radio system isn’t digitised, it can be listened into. There are still a number of analogue systems in operation but they are being phased out,” a garda source said.
Special armed garda patrols are roaming the country at night trying to hunt down the gang which has left a trail of destruction behind them.
The gang of up to 20 specialises in stealing cigarettes but has also robbed large amounts of cash from supermarkets and shops. The criminals are adept at disabling alarms, usually by cutting fibre optic cables at telephone junction boxes. The damage done is estimated to be almost €1.5m.
In 1999 the gang caused €400,000 damage to a junction box in Boherbue, North Cork and last May disabled another in Mitchelstown, also in north Cork, cutting off 4,000 phones.
In May the gang tore an ATM cash dispenser from a wall of a petrol station in Co Carlow. It was abandoned after they failed to break into it.
The gang members carry out their own surveillance on garda movements. Gardaí from Tipperary and Limerick who tried to pursue the gang have been attacked and injured.
The criminals, many believed to be from Dublin, have also struck in the Midlands and in the West.
They steal cars which they often drive at reckless speeds at night with the headlights switched off.
“They are very dangerous and shouldn’t be tackled by the public. We estimate that they steal at least €20,000 worth of cigarettes every week,” the senior garda source said.
In the early hours of Tuesday morning four men armed with sawn-off shotguns held up postal staff at a sorting office at Commons Road, Navan. They tied up three of the staff and robbed cigarettes worth €20,000.
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