CUSTOMS OFFICERS have condemned an attack on a colleague who was chased from his truck after it inadvertently drove into Northern Ireland yesterday.
The truck was removing items seized from a diesel-laundering plant near the Border in Co Monaghan on Thursday. The vehicle was rammed from behind and the driver forced out of it after a gang of men surrounded him while holding up canisters of petrol.
The plant was one of the largest uncovered in recent years and could process 20 million litres of fuel a year, netting a profit of about €10 million a year for the criminals behind it and a loss to the exchequer of some €11 million.
A spokesman for the Revenue Commissioners yesterday said: “We are taking this incident very seriously and will investigate the matter. Needless to say, the officer involved is shaken after his ordeal.”
The man was part of a convoy of Customs vehicles that was taking equipment from the plant at Drumacon, Castleblayney, which was raided by Customs officers backed up by armed gardaí early on Thursday morning. The site is one field away from the Border and Armagh, and a few kilometres from Crossmaglen.
Customs sources say there was intimidation of staff as they prepared to leave the site on Thursday evening, with a number of other vehicles driving in front of Customs officers.
This contributed to a Customs truck straying a short distance across the Border. The driver attempted to do a U-turn but his path was blocked, the truck was rammed by a tractor and he was surrounded by four cars.
A number of men, who were not masked, got out of the cars wielding petrol cans and the Customs officer was put in fear of his life. He ran from the vehicle and the men, and the truck was set on fire.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said it was investigating a hijacking in the Crossmaglen area and “our inquiries are continuing”.
A colleague of the officer who was driving the truck said: “This was an outrage and his life was in danger; it is as if there is no respect for the law in that area. The way it happened it had to be pre-planned and pre-orchestrated but it won’t stop us.”
Meanwhile it may be next week before results are known on samples of water taken at the diesel laundering plant that were sent for testing. Monaghan County Council is afraid ground water has been contaminated by the toxic residue from the plant. There are also concerns the contamination could have reached a public water supply.
A number of trenches and ditches had been dug beside the laundering plant and the residue from the tanks being used to wash the diesel was being drained into them.
Executive engineer with Monaghan County Council Kieran Duffy said yesterday: “Our investigations are ongoing. Staff took samples from various locations on the site and they have been sent for analysis. It will be next week before we get the results.”
Work is continuing on cleaning up the site, and the cost of exporting the diesel and other substances for proper disposal is estimated to be at least €20,000.
Mr Duffy said in the last seven years the council had spent €2 million cleaning up such sites.