Men charged over €1m 'robbery bid'

Seven men were today charged in connection with an alleged €1m robbery attempt.

They were arrested on Friday morning by undercover gardaí who had been tailing a gang for weeks in the lead up to the botched cash-in-transit van hold-up in Celbridge, Co Kildare.

Officers from the garda elite Emergency Response Unit (ERU) said they moved in as members of the gang made a daring daylight bid to break into the van in the town’s busy Tesco shopping centre car park.

Two security workers who were manning the unmarked, reinforced vehicle were refilling an ATM in the supermarket at around 10am when the would-be raiders struck.

No shots were fired and none of the estimated €1m in cash was stolen during the sting which came after a lengthy garda intelligence operation.

It is understood detectives were tailing the gang for weeks.

No one one was injured as gardai seized four vehicles, a firearm – believed to have been an imitation – and cutting equipment.

Officers from the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the National Surveillance Unit were also involved in the operation.

Chubb Security said one of its employees was among those arrested.

All seven men will appear at Kilmainham District Court in Dublin tomorrow morning.

They were being held under section 30 of the Offences Against The State Act at garda stations in Kildare and Dublin.