Leading gang suspected of latest tiger kidnapping attack

GARDAÍ suspect that one of the country’s top tiger kidnap gangs was behind last Monday’s kidnapping in Dublin.

This outfit is led by a man aged in his late 30s who has previously been named in court as a professional criminal.

From Dublin’s north inner city, the gang boss is considered by gardaí as a “very clever” individual.

He is also thought to be behind the robbery of €7.6m from the Bank of Ireland cash distribution centre on Dublin’s College Green last February in what was the biggest tiger kidnapping to date.

There has been speculation that he may have been behind a tiger kidnapping in Kilkenny last November, but gardaí believe a separate north Dublin gang carried that out.

In last Monday’s crime, Reginald Shannon, a crew manager with Brinks Allied Security, left his house in Sandymount, south Dublin, shortly after 6am for his routine early morning walk with his dog, when he was grabbed by a man with a gun.

When he was taken back to his home, the gang took his mother, aged in her late 60s, and Mr Shannon’s nine-year-old niece, away in a van. They were subjected to a terrifying six-hour ordeal.

Mr Shannon was ordered to go to the Bank of Ireland branch on O’Connell Street and await the arrival of a scheduled Brinks delivery van. He was ordered to approach the security staff and get money from them.

He managed to get €100,000, which is probably considerably less than what the gang wanted. It is not clear why he couldn’t get more, but it could be because larger amounts locked away in safes could not be accessed.

Security sources have told the Irish Examiner that the overriding factor in tiger kidnappings is to ensure the safety of family members.

Gardaí are working round the clock to gather all the available information and evidence as fast as they can.

They are scouring all possible CCTV footage from the various crime scenes and sifting through logs of mobile phone activity in those areas at the relevant times to look for possible patterns.

They have appealed to anyone who saw the two vehicles used in the crime to contact them. Gardaí are also trying to locate members of the gang.