TWO WELL-known criminals are among four people being questioned about an attempted robbery yesterday morning in which a shot was fired at a security guard making a delivery of money to a post office.
One of the arrested men is related to a well-known armed robber from Dublin’s north inner city and is himself a suspect for a number of armed robberies of cash-in-transit vans.
One of the other men arrested is linked to the same north inner city crime gang. He was questioned in January about the robbery of almost €8 million from a Bank of Ireland cash storage facility in College Green in Dublin. The gang has been heavily involved in armed robbery and drug dealing for a number of years. Some of its members are suspected of carrying out shootings and some live in southern Spain where they source drugs for sale in Ireland.
The two well-known suspects and two others, all of whom are in their 20s, were arrested yesterday in a car on Jones Road near Dublin’s Croke Park stadium.
The men are being questioned about the attempted robbery of a cash-in-transit van at a post office on Church Road, East Wall, Dublin, just before 9.20am yesterday.
As a delivery van was bringing money to the post office a masked raider armed with a sawn-off shotgun entered the premises and demanded the money being delivered.
He threatened staff with his gun and discharged a shot before fleeing the scene without any money. One of the crew of the van suffered a graze wound to the face and gardaí believe it was caused by a pellet from the shotgun blast.
The raider was then driven from the scene by at least one accomplice. The scene was sealed off by gardaí and a full forensic examination was carried out by members of the Garda Technical Bureau.
About two and a half hours after the raid, at noon, gardaí moved in on a car on Jones Road and arrested the four occupants. The men were all detained under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act. They are being questioned by gardaí at Store Street and Mountjoy Garda stations.
A number of follow-up searches were conducted at addresses in the north inner city yesterday afternoon.
The investigation is being led by gardaí at Store Street and the Organised Crime Unit and they have issued an appeal for the public’s assistance.
They want to speak to any members of the public who may have seen a dark grey Nissan Micra with an ‘L’ plate in the area around the scene of the attempted robbery at the Church Road post office.
Anybody with information is asked to contact Store Street Garda station on (01) 6668089.
Gardai yesterday seized cannabis resin valued at an estimated €700,000 after a car was stopped and searched in north Dublin.
Two men, aged 25 and 36, and a 29 year old woman were arrested, in the operation.
A search of the vehicle at Griffith Avenue at 1.30 pm uncovered 96kg of the resin. During a follow up search of a house in Clongriffin, Coolock a further 4kgs of resin was seized.
Meanwhile, one man has been charged and another man remains in Garda custody following the seizure of 100kg of cannabis resin in Dublin on Tuesday night.
Gardaí made the discovery after stopping and searching a car on the M1 Dublin to Belfast motorway near Swords.