Paramilitary links to bank heist investigated

Detectives were today probing possible paramilitary links to the gang behind the £22m (€31.4m) Northern Bank robbery in Belfast.

Police have refused to rule out republican or loyalist paramilitary involvement in the intricately-planned raid.

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.

The Provisionals were linked to a £1m (€1.4m) 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.

Superintendent Andy Sproule confirmed: “An active line of inquiry is in relation to previous incidents where professional robbery gangs have been involved in the Greater Belfast area.”

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 peace process and effectively end any lingering hopes of Sinn Féin being part of a restored power-sharing executive.

Money-laundering experts in Britain believe it will be virtually impossible to shift the cash, with at least £13m (€18.6m) made up in new notes.

Detectives revealed that £12m (€17.1m) in new Northern Bank £10 (€14.30) and £20 (€28.60) notes, and more than £1m (€1.4m) worth of £100 (€142.90) and £50 (€71.40) notes were among the stolen cash.

They have also access to the serial numbers.

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

Supt 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 £22m (€31.4m) 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.

The gang, of at least 20 men, took over two houses on Sunday night and ordered the employees to go to the bank as part of the operation to clear out the vaults.

Three masked men snatched a bank worker from his home in Poleglass, west Belfast in front of his terrified parents, brother and brother’s girlfriend.

He was driven to his supervisor Kevin McMullan’s home in Loughinisland, Co Down.

There, to gain entry, ruthless raiders posing as police officers told Mr McMullan and his wife Karen that a relative had been killed in a car crash.

A gun was then put to the official’s head and he was tied up, police said.

Mrs McMullan was driven to an unknown location and held overnight.

Late on Monday night the distraught woman went to a house at Drumkeeragh Forest Park, about 15 minutes drive from her home, and raised the alarm.

The two terrified bank employees had gone into work at around noon on Monday with warnings that their loved ones would be killed if they did not act as normal.

As the audacious raid began at the close of business, one of the pair left the premises on Donegall Square West with a holdall containing more than £1m (€1.4m) in new notes.

Between 6pm and 8.15pm the underground vaults were plundered.

Cash was bundled into containers, stacked into wire cages and taken out in two separate runs to a waiting white box-type van with a specially-fitted tail lift. Its registration number was RCZ 6632.

The truck drove off from the headquarters on Donegall Square West towards the West Link, a major motorway route running through the centre of Belfast.

Surrounding streets were packed with Christmas shoppers and police urged anyone who might have spotted the heist unfolding to get in contact.

“There are people who would have been in the area of the bank around 6pm to 8.15pm on Monday night,” Mr Sproule said.