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Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Northern Ireland police arrested two men in connection with the theft of about 27 million pounds ($48 million) from a bank in Belfast last December, the biggest bank robbery in U.K. history.
The unidentified men were arrested late yesterday in Kilcoo, around 32 miles (50 kilometers) south of Belfast, police said in a statement today. They said they would be providing ``absolutely no further details'' at this time.
Police have blamed the Irish Republican Army for the Dec. 20 robbery of the branch of Northern Bank, which hampered efforts to restore the power-sharing government that brought Northern Ireland's Protestant and Catholic communities together. The IRA, which in July pledged to end its armed campaign for a united Ireland, has denied involvement in the raid.
The robbery was carried out after the thieves took family members of two bank employees hostage and forced the workers to open doors to a safe at the bank, beside City Hall in central Belfast, before loading money from the safe into a nearby truck.
Kilcoo is a ``strongly republican'' area of Northern Ireland and close to where the wife of a bank employee was held hostage as part of the robbery, Dublin-based broadcaster RTE reported on its Web site.
Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein, the political party allied to the IRA, told reporters in Dublin today he would be ``entirely and absolutely surprised'' if the men arrested were members of the illegal organization.
No Charges Yet
Police investigating the robbery have yet to charge anybody with the crime. Irish police, who are assisting detectives in Northern Ireland, said on Oct. 12 that 3 million pounds found in the city of Cork in February was part of the bank heist.
Northern Bank is owned by Danske Bank A/S, which agreed to buy the Belfast-based lender and National Irish Bank from National Australia Bank Ltd. last year.
Talks on restoring the Belfast-based executive stalled last December when unionists, who want Northern Ireland to remain part of the U.K., demanded photographs to prove IRA arms had been decommissioned. The IRA last month put all its weapons beyond use, a group that monitors decommissioning said. The illegal organization didn't supply photographs.
The power-sharing assembly was suspended in October 2002. The province has been ruled from London since then.
November 2, 2005 at 01:22 PM in IRA | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home