2004-12-21

Holy Huge Haul, Batman!

This is amazing. Today, in Belfast, thieves took the families of two top bankers hostage and forced them to help them steal more than $39 million. And this wasn't even the biggest haul they'd ever made.

"Experts said Monday's raid on the Northern Bank cash center was the biggest robbery since 1987, when thieves made off with about $65 million in cash and other valuables from the Knightsbridge Safe Deposit Center in west London.

The tactics in Belfast - particularly the use of hostage-taking as a way to infiltrate a high-security target - suggested a level of sophistication and experience most commonly found within Northern Ireland's rival outlawed groups, particularly the Irish Republican Army.

"This isn't a gang of Belfast criminals who just got together. It's more than that. This looks like a military operation with obvious connotations," said John O'Connor, a former commander of Scotland Yard's elite detective unit in London."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

If this was not the work of one of the paramilitary organizations then I am a fine piece of mutton.

The IRA was responsible for most of the well organized heists while I live in Ireland. I just hope that this money is for a retirement fund, not for more operations !

Anonymous said...

Do I need to go to the slang dictonary to see what it means to be a fine piecs of mutton. I was under the impression that mutton was nasty, so will you be kind enough to translate your Irish into American.

John Rickards said...

They're not *that* bright, though. Apparently, all the cash is in Northern Ireland pounds, making them far less accepted and much more easily recognisable than your common or garden England/Wales pound - the standard version. So it's all going to be much harder to shift...