The theft of at least £20 million sterling from the vaults of the Northern Bank in Belfast is a salutary reminder that, no matter what progress is made in reaching a comprehensive settlement on the political front, criminal activity will always be with us.
Society must be protected from such people. This is criminal activity writ large. And if evidence emerges of paramilitary involvement in the robbery, it will have serious implications for the peace process.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland has declined to offer a view on whether there was paramilitary involvement in the robbery or to speculate on what, if any, organisations may have been involved. That is a prudent and understandable response in the absence of hard evidence. But the bank theft was so well-planned and executed that ordinary criminals might not be capable of such a detailed operation. Because of modern security measures, bank robberies are rarely successful and organised crime tends to make its money by smuggling and selling drugs and cigarettes.
The centrepiece of this break-in involved so-called "tiger kidnappings", where gang members arrived at the homes of two Northern Bank officials with access to the vaults, took them and their families hostage for 24 hours, and promised to let them go once the robbery was successfully completed. It differed only in scale from a spate of recent thefts across the North. Since January, there have been 40 robberies involving "tiger kidnappings" in which criminals abducted key individuals and successfully targeted post offices, warehouses, cash and carry outlets and other businesses which would have a large cash flow.
Because of the detailed intelligence required, this particular bank robbery may have been at the planning stage for a year or more. The combined sale of the National Irish Bank and the Northern Bank last week, to Danske Bank, could have precipitated the robbery. The thieves may have been concerned that a change in management structures, along with new security measures, could have made their planning redundant. Certainly, serious questions have to be asked at the Northern Bank about how such a large amount of money was removed without triggering an alarm. At least one large truck was required to take the cash away.
As was the case in previous notable robberies, stealing the money may prove to be the easiest part of the exercise. Keeping the cash and staying out of the clutches of the law may be far more difficult for the thieves. In recent years, measures aimed at detecting and preventing money laundering have been strengthened within the European Union and, in this case, the bulk of the notes were printed in Northern Ireland. The sheer scale of this robbery will ensure intense underworld gossip, plus a high level of co-operation between governments and police forces. The sooner the money is recovered and the perpetrators are jailed, the better.