Shotgun discarded during foiled raid recovered

A shotgun stolen two years ago from a suburb on the western side of Cork City was discarded by raiders as they fled from armed gardaí who lay in wait for them as they attempted to rob a businessman.

The weapon was discovered in a search of a field close to the Glounthaune, Co Cork, home of Pat Glavin, who runs a successful outdoor catering company.

Gardaí, who had known for weeks in advance that the five-man gang was preparing the raid, carried out a text-book operation to safeguard the Glavin family and apprehend the gang members.

It’s believed the gang targeted Mr Glavin because his business dealt with a lot of cash and he had been very busy in recent weeks serving fast food at various concerts, festivals and sporting events around the country.

The shotgun has been sent to Garda headquarters where ballistic experts will carry out tests to see if it has been fired recently.

The theft of the weapon took place around the same time as two cars and a Mitsubishi Pajero 4x4 were stolen in Cork.

A few days later they were discovered by gardaí in Glounthaune village, just over a mile from the Glavin house.

At the time, gardaí said the cars were likely to have been stolen in advance of a planned armed robbery.

Detectives are looking at the possibility that the same gang may have targeted Mr Glavin at that time, but had to call off the robbery when gardaí seized the vehicles on Jul 4, 2011.

Gardaí are continuing to carry out searches as part of their investigation.

In the meantime, they continue to question the five men, four of whom are in their 30s.

The other man, believed to be the gang leader, is in his 40s.

“All of the men would be well known to us,” a Garda source said.

Gardaí don’t know if the gang were carrying any other weapons and they didn’t fire any shots, primarily because they were surprised and outnumbered by heavily-armed gardaí.

Up to 50 gardaí were backed up by the Garda helicopter, which used infra-red equipment to pinpoint the gang members as they tried to escape under the cover of darkness.

One man was arrested at the house when he tried to gain access at 10.30pm last Sunday.

Another was quickly detained after gardaí fired stun grenades at him while he fled across a nearby field.

Two more men were arrested at 12.40am the following day when gardaí stopped a car in Glanmire.

The fifth suspect was detained at a house in Mayfield nearly three hours later.

The men are being held at Garda stations in Cobh, Midleton and Mayfield under Section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act.

Under this legislation — which is normally used against those involved in organised crime — the men can be detained for up to seven days before they have to be released or charged.