Gardaí make five arrests in tiger kidnapping probe

Armed gardaí arrested five suspected gang members today over the tiger kidnapping of a bank worker’s wife.

Raids were carried out in a number of houses in south and west Dublin by officers investigating the €300,000 theft.

Four men in their 20s were arrested in Kilcock, Co Kildare, with a fifth man in his 30s detained in Blanchardstown.

A garda spokesman confirmed sums of money were also discovered in two of the houses searched.

The bank worker and his wife were targeted at their home in Templeogue, west Dublin, in the early hours of yesterday morning.

Three men – one armed – took the woman from her home while her husband, an AIB employee, was ordered to carry out the theft at the Clondalkin village branch.

The cash was dropped off at an arranged site before the man‘s wife was freed hours later near a quarry in rural Wicklow.

Gardaí, supported by members of the Organised Crime Unit and the Emergency Response Unit, raided the properties during the day.

Two of the suspects are being held at Terenure Garda Station, two in Crumlin and one in Rathmines.

All are being detained under Section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act.

Gardaí have appealed for information from anyone in Clondalkin on Friday morning or who may have seen two vehicles – a black 10-D registration Volkswagen Golf and a black Nissan Qashqai with a 08-D registration – which may have been used by the gang during the day.