CAB trawls accounts in bank robberies probe

The Criminal Assets Bureau is today probing the bank accounts of 22 people arrested in a massive crackdown on armed robberies in the capital.

Detectives from CAB are examining the money trail after the kidnapping of a Dublin family and the subsequent robbery of more than €2m from the Securicor cash transit company last month.

Gardaí said the raids on a north Dublin gang suspected of involvement in the cash-in-transit heists was extremely significant.

Officers have been questioning the people since they made a series of dawn raids at more than 60 locations across the capital, and in Ashbourne in Co Meath yesterday.

About €150,000 in cash was recovered, along with massive quantities of cocaine, weapons and several luxury cars which had been purchased in the wake of the ATM robberies.

CAB detectives are examining the bank accounts of the 22 people – 19 men and three women – as the luxury cars which have been seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act include expensive new and second hand Mercedes and BMW models.

Officers said these had recently been purchased with cash.

Officers had suspected that an insider was involved in the spate of armed robberies and security van heists. Detectives have confirmed that one of the men arrested was an employee of a security company.

A senior Garda source said the operation was directed at a north Dublin gang in Coolock. The gang was believed to be behind the kidnapping of a Dublin family and the subsequent robbery, as well as a spate of small and large armed hold-ups of cash-in-transit vans over the past few months.

Up to 300 officers from the local stations, the Criminal Assets Bureau, the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Garda Fraud Squad and the Garda National Bureau of Immigration were involved in the raids.

The 22 people arrested are being detained under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.