Three held over tiger robbery

Three men are still being questioned by gardaí investigating a tiger robber in west Dublin.

Three men are still being questioned by gardaí investigating a tiger robber in west Dublin.

The men, aged 23, 38 and 70, were arrested on Wednesday night as part of an intelligence led investigation into an incident in which some €200,000 was taken from an AIB branch at Crumlin Cross.

They are being held at Finglas Garda station under the provisions of section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act 2007 and can be held for up to seven days.

At about 3.30am on Tuesday an armed gang abducted the housemate of an AIB staff member from their home at Kiltipper, Tallaght.

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The bank official was given a mobile phone and ordered to go to his workplace to get a sum of money. He was contacted hours later and told to drop off a bag of cash at a location close to the Red Cow roundabout in west Dublin. His housemate was then freed in Portmarnock, north Dublin, but the gang was not caught at the time.

Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern has requested a report into the robbery to see whether security protocols set down by gardaí for such instances were followed. Senior gardaí were said to be furious the gang had gotten away such a large sum.

A Garda spokesman said members of the Organised Crime Unit, Emergency Response Unit and officers from Tallaght Garda station stopped a car in an apartment block off the River Road in Finglas last night and two of the men.

A sum of money, understood to be about €30,000, was also recovered.

The 70-year-old man was detained in follow up searches.