Police operation foiled tiger kidnapping, court hears

A DETECTIVE constable told a court in Derry yesterday that a police intelligence-lead surveillance operation, which started in…

A DETECTIVE constable told a court in Derry yesterday that a police intelligence-lead surveillance operation, which started in west Belfast last Friday, foiled the tiger kidnapping of three members of the same family, all of whom work in the financial sector.

The three intended victims, two women and a man, have since moved out of their home in Magherafelt, Co Derry.

Five men were remanded in custody when they appeared at the Magistrate’s Court in Derry charged with conspiring to kidnap, falsely imprison and rob the three at their home in Aughrim Road, Magherafelt, in the early hours of Friday.

The five, whom the PSNI have described as “members of a major criminal gang”, are Ruairí Larkin (24), Sandymount, Magherafelt; Colm Meli (27), Kilkeel Road, Annalong; Brendan Lillis (58), Belfast; Terence Lunney (26), Nansen Street, Belfast; and Richard Manson (32), Sherbey Crescent, Annalong.

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Mr Lillis, Mr Lunney and Mr Manson are further charged with possessing a firearm or imitation firearm last Friday.

They were arrested in a field to the rear of the Aughrim Road house. Mr Meli was arrested in Newcastle, Co Down, and Mr Larkin, the long-term boyfriend of one of the intended victims, was arrested in the family home after he had allegedly sent a text message to Mr Manson which stated: “In the house now, I will text when they are all in bed.”

After his arrest, Mr Larkin told the police he was “acting under duress”.

The police witness told Judge Barney McElholm that Mr Lillis had been released on licence in 1993, following his convictions for 21 explosive offences and 16 firearm offences.

He said in relation to Mr Larkin, because of his relationship with one of the intended victims, that he had “gathered a large amount of personal information about the family”.

The detective constable said that during the arrest operation, police officers fired two warning shots after they had heard what they thought was a weapon being cocked.

He told the court that the police found firearms or imitation firearms, balaclava masks and lengths of cable wire at the scene

“We strongly believe that this highly organised criminal gang were in the process, in the concluding state, of a tiger kidnap. We believe they intended to send one or more of their intended victims to their place of work to get large sums of cash in return for the release of the other persons.

“Members of this gang met in various parts of the province before travelling some considerable distance to the family home.

“Two cars involved were under observation from the moment they left west Belfast,” he said.

Refusing bail, the judge said the the case against the defendants was that “they acted in a premeditated and carefully planned fashion and I accept that, but for police intelligence, they may well have succeeded”.

All five were remanded in custody, three of them until November 11th and two of them until later this week.