Bank raiders may have to dump cash

The gang behind the Northern Bank heist may be forced to dump more than half the cash, it emerged tonight.

Police chiefs hunting the robbers revealed most of the missing money is made up in new notes.

Money laundering experts in Britain believe it will be virtually impossible to shift the cash without raising suspicions.

With police refusing to rule out republican or loyalist paramilitary involvement in the raid, Jeffrey Robinson said: “If they are smart they will take the US dollars and euro that are there and burn the rest.”

Detectives said considerable pre-planning was made in advance of the raid on a cash distribution centre in the basement of Northern Bank headquarters

Superintendent Andy Sproule, who is heading a team of 45 detectives, admitted: “This was a carefully planned operation by professional criminals who obviously had done their homework.”

It has also been revealed that:

:: the gang posed as police officers when they held the families of two bank employees hostage for over 24 hours.

:: security arrangements at the basement cash distribution centre are under close scrutiny.

:: the bank has admitted it had no external insurance cover and its Australian owners will have to bear the cost of the loss.

Detectives are trawling through hundreds of hours of CCTV videotapes in the hunt for the robbers.

They are examining tapes from cameras positioned in and around the headquarters of the bank in the centre of Belfast.

Even though police do not know where the stolen cash is located, Mr Robinson, author of The Money Launderer, insisted they had taken too much in the wrong currency.

“They obviously did not count on there being so much money, and Northern Irish notes,” he told the ITV news Channel. “The money is fundamentally useless. I suspect they know that by now.”

With the IRA among several terrorist organisations still under suspicion, detectives are studying details of other military-style raids in a bid to identify the men behind the spectacular heist.

Although investigators have not named any organisation which might have orchestrated the raid, it is clear that the Provisionals are under serious consideration.

They were linked to a hold-up at a big Belfast superstore earlier this year where robbers struck with ruthless efficiency. Staff were tied up by the gang who made off with alcohol, cigarettes and top of the range electrical equipment.

The Independent Monitoring Commission, the body set up to study terrorist ceasefires in Northern Ireland, blamed the Provos for the raid on a Makro cash and carry store in the south of the city last May.

If police establish a definite link with the IRA it will have a devastating impact on the future of the Northern Ireland peace process and effectively end any lingering hopes of Sinn Fein being part of a restored power-sharing Executive.

Police are also considering that a highly organised criminal outfit with no paramilitary connections may have masterminded the robbery.