Gardaí are today questioning five men over the "tiger kidnapping" of a bank official’s wife last week.
Raids were carried out by armed gardaí in a number of houses in south and west Dublin yesterday by officers investigating the €300,000 theft.
Four men in their 20s were arrested in Kilcock, Co Kildare, with a fifth man in his 30s detained in Blanchardstown. A Garda spokesman confirmed sums of money were also discovered in two of the houses searched. According to reports, some €50,000 was recovered during the raids.
Three men - one armed - took the bank official's wife from her home while her husband, an AIB employee, was ordered to carry out the theft at the Clondalkin village branch. The cash was dropped off at an arranged site before the man‘s wife was freed hours later near a quarry in rural Wicklow.
Gardaí, supported by members of the Organised Crime Unit and the Emergency Response Unit, raided the properties yesterday. Two of the suspects are being held at Terenure Garda Station, two in Crumlin and one in Rathmines. All are being detained under Section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act and can be held for up to a week.
Gardaí have appealed for information from anyone in Clondalkin who may have seen two vehicles - a black 10-D registration Volkswagen Golf and a black Nissan Qashqai with a 08-D registration - that may have been used by the gang.
At around 11pm on Wednesday three masked men, at least one of whom was armed with a sawn-off shotgun, broke into the home of an AIB bank manager at Domville Drive, Templeogue, south Dublin.
The raiders held the bank manager and his wife hostage in their home until around 7.30am the following day, when the woman was taken by the gang from the house in a black 10 D registered VW Golf.
Her husband was instructed by the gang to go to work at the AIB Clondalkin branch in west Dublin as normal. He was then given further instructions by phone later in the morning and told to bring a bag of money to a drop-off point at Cherrywood, close to the bank branch.
He drove his 08 black Nissan Qashqai to the drop-off point, leaving it unlocked with the money inside.
A gang member then arrived at 10.30am and took the car with the bag containing just under €300,000. At 12.45pm the bank manager’s wife was released unharmed at Ballybrew Quarry in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow.
AIB officials had contacted gardaí while the robbery was still under way. Although a rapid response operation involving members of the Emergency Response Unit and National Surveillance Unit was put in place, the gang evaded gardaí.
Additional reporting PA