A Royal Mail van delivering mail from Belfast to Dublin was seized early yesterday by armed men dressed as gardaí, who flagged it down near Drogheda. They tied up the driver and stole the contents of the van.
The driver spent more than twelve hours handcuffed and tied up in the vehicle before he was freed.
Security sources said the manner in which the robbery was carried out by the four-man gang was similar to that used in the past by the Provisional IRA and dissident republicans.
The van was carrying registered post, including parcels and letters, from Belfast to Dublin, when the driver saw a dark coloured car parked at the side of the M1 motorway north of Monasterboice, Co Louth, at about 12.30am. Two men stepped out in front of the van, wearing what appeared to be Garda uniforms, and flagged down the driver.
When he stopped, they got into the van. They threatened the driver, telling him he would not be harmed if he did as he was told. One of the attackers was carrying what appeared to be a handgun.
The driver told gardaí that the men then drove the van for about an hour before taking a number of mail bags out of the back, handcuffing him, tying him up and abandoning the vehicle in the middle of a field in Co Louth at about 1.30am.
The driver was freed after a local man saw the van in the field and heard the noises of the driver trying to get help.
Gardaí were last night interviewing the van driver, who was shocked but not physically hurt by his ordeal.
The value of the mail stolen was not known last night.