FOUR MEN being questioned about a foiled armed robbery last Friday when two of their associates were wounded, one fatally, appeared before a special court to have their periods of detention extended.
The men were brought before Dublin District Court yesterday and can be held until lunchtime today. At that point they must either be released or charged in relation to the incident in Foxborough, Lucan, Co Dublin, last Friday.
Three of the men were arrested in a car that sped from the scene of the botched robbery after a garda opened fire on their two associates. The fourth man in custody was arrested in his own car, not far from the botched robbery scene, after he tried to escape.
Two of the arrested men are cousins from the north inner city. They are related to a major gangland figure who made a substantial settlement with the Criminal Assets Bureau some years ago.
The cousins and another man they are related to are members of a well-known gang who have carried out a number of armed raids in recent months in which over €8 million was stolen.
Members of the gang are believed to have carried out a robbery on a Bank of Ireland storage facility at College Green, Dublin, in which €7.6 million was stolen in February. The money was taken after a bank worker and his partner’s family were held hostage.
One of the men in custody in relation to last week’s incident is believed to have been behind at least three recent raids on cash in transit vans in Dublin almost identical to that attempted last Friday.
The six involved in last week’s raid in Lucan are in their 20s. They were attempting to target a G4S van carrying €1 million as it was delivering money to an ATM at a Centra shop on Foxborough Road in the Foxborough estate in Lucan. Gardaí had received intelligence that the men were planning a raid. The Garda’s surveillance on the men led them to the Foxborough estate on Friday.
Two of the men threatened the G4S staff with a sawn-off shotgun outside the Centra at noon. A shot was discharged by one of the two raiders.
Garda sources said armed officers at the scene shouted to the men that they were armed members of the force and ordered the armed man to drop his weapon.
The same sources said when the raider did not comply, one of the gardaí opened fire. Five shots were discharged by one garda.
Both raiders were wounded. One of them, 28-year-old Gareth Molloy from Sheriff Street, Dublin, died in Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown.
The other man, a 26-year-old with an address near Sheriff Street, underwent surgery and remains seriously ill in hospital.
Garda sources said while the dead man and wounded man have lengthy criminal records they would not have been regarded as significant gangland figures.
Mr Molly is believed to have agreed to take part in the robbery because he needed money to pay compensation demanded by a dissident republican he had injured in a fight.
