GARDAI believe the IRA may have been behind an armed raid on a Dundalk postal sorting office early yesterday. Parcel post and at least £75,000 worth of cigarettes destined for the main Special Delivery Service (SDS) office on the Naas Road in Dublin were stolen.
When an An Post employee arrived at around 1 a.m. to drive a delivery to the Naas Road he was confronted by two masked men carrying what appeared to be handguns. They handcuffed him and tied his feet together and placed him behind a fuel tank. A short time later another driver arrived and was also tied up.
A 20-30 foot truck was driven into the yard at approximately 1.35 a.m. and was loaded with the items. The value of the stolen parcel post, some of which originated in Portadown, is not known.
The truck left the yard just before 2 a.m. and gardai say it is unclear in which direction it headed. There were no reported sightings of it yesterday and it could have been driven across the Border.
SDS headquarters in Dublin contacted the Garda in Dundalk, when the scheduled delivery failed to arrive. When gardai went to the sorting office they found the two men tied up. They were shaken but unhurt. Garda technical experts visited the office and yard at Pearse Park early yesterday morning and carried out a detailed examination of the scene.
A Garda spokesperson said there had been no raid of this magnitude since the IRA ceasefire and it had the appearance of subversive involvement.
Meanwhile, £13,000 in cash was stolen in a raid on a post office in Dublin early yesterday. A Garda spokesman said two men, armed with a shotgun, and handgun raided the Phibsborough Post Office at 6.45 a.m. before escaping in a black Honda car, believed to have been stolen. It was later found abandoned in Grangegorman.
The two men gained admittance through the front door of the building on the North Circular, Road by threatening an employee, outside. They, stole wages made up for delivery staff at the post office, which serves Dublin, 7.