Four arrested as gardaí foil armed robbery

Gardaí were last night questioning four men who were arrested as they prepared to carry out an armed raid in Balbriggan, Co Dublin, yesterday afternoon.

The arrests followed a separate incident yesterday morning in Dublin in which four raiders attempted to rob a cash-in-transit van using two 4X4 vehicles, one of which had been fitted with a steel ramming girder.

The two failed robbery attempts followed three successful attacks on cash vans in Dublin in the last 10 days.

The Minister for Justice Michael McDowell is to hold talks with representatives from the banking and private security sectors in Dublin this morning to discuss security arrangements for the movement of large sums of money.

The Minister for State at the Department of Justice Brian Lenihan told the Dáil yesterday that it was clear a voluntary code introduced last year for the private security sector was not working. The Private Security Authority would now "bring forward proposals for the introduction of mandatory licensing as soon as possible".

The four men arrested in Balbriggan were detained by members of the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) at Market Green at 3.05pm. Members of the ERU, acting on intelligence, moved in on a convoy of three vehicles, the occupants of which gardaí believe were about to carry out a robbery on a cash van.

Gardaí seized two cars and a van and found a sawn-off shotgun in one of the vehicles. The men, who are from the north side of Dublin, were taken to Garda stations in Balbriggan, Santry and Drogheda.

Earlier, the crew of a cash-in-transit van managed to escape after their vehicle was rammed at Killester Avenue in north Dublin.

The gang had attached a steel ramming girder to the front of a 4X4 vehicle they used to try and immobilise an armoured Brinks Allied vehicle.

The gang members were dressed as construction workers and set up road works to disguise themselves and their ramming vehicle while they waited for the armoured van.

The gang had parked a BMW getaway car nearby and had used "men at work" signs to close off the bus lane on the Malahide Road to make sure traffic would not disrupt their escape.

The Brinks Allied van arrived on the scene at 10.10am. However, when the thieves moved in and tried to ram the vehicle, the van driver managed to speed away and escape, despite his vehicle being shunted on to the footpath.

The armoured van was also rammed by a second 4X4 vehicle from behind.

The raiders escaped in their getaway car. It was later found a short distance away and, along with the 4X4s, was being technically examined last night.

Last Tuesday week, a Securicor van was rammed by an armed gang using a stolen JCB-type construction vehicle in Donaghmede in Dublin. Approximately €600,000 was stolen.

A smaller sum was taken on the same day by two armed raiders who held up the crew of a cash van in Dublin 4.

Last Saturday, €800,000 was stolen in Dublin from a Chubb security vehicle in Clondalkin.