Northern Bank Robbery

joe.

The PSNI searched the home of a leading republican on Christmas Eve as part of its attempt to recover the £22m stolen from the Northern Bank headquarters in Belfast.

Eddie Copeland's house at Homedene Gardens in the Ardoyne area of north Belfast was searched by a forensic team who also carried out a search of his car and removed several items from his home.

Police also searched other commercial properties and homes in the north and west of Belfast.

Mr Copeland said police showed him a warrant which confirmed the raid was in connection with Monday's robbery.

He said he knew nothing about the robbery and could not understand why his home was raided.

Mr Copeland said the police took away 16 pairs of his shoes, mobile phones that were in the house, and he said detectives opened and searched presents under his Christmas tree.

Sinn Féin councillor Margaret McClenaghan said the raid on Mr Copeland's house was a disgrace. She said the police were only targeting republicans because they had not managed to make a breakthrough in the hunt for the robbers.

It is reported that police and Northern Bank have discussed the possibility of recalling every Northern Bank note to prevent the stolen money from being circulated.

The notes range from £5 to £100 denominations.

The Provisional IRA have denied any involvement in the robbery. The denial came after police refused to rule out paramilitary involvement in the heist.

mike65

daveirl wrote:

This post has been deleted.

The O'Marcos household was raided presumably...

Mike.

AmenToThat

Seems the PSNI informed the media in advance about some of those houses they were raiding to ensure that cameras captured the whole scene. Looks like there trying to pin it on the provos even though aparently they have no real leads so far
Dont get me wrong I reckon the provos are the only ones who could have carried it off but the way the PSNI and the media are handling it stinks as far as I can see

Dub13

Word going around is that this job was done by the Official IRA and not the Provos

Raskolnikov

daveirl wrote:

This post has been deleted.

I would assume that they have a footprint they found at the scene of the robbery. They'll probably cross-reference the shoes they took from Republican mans house with that of the footprint they found at the robbery.

If it turns out that the houses of the men who were raided are not involved with the crime I wouldn't blame Sinn Féin for not signing up to the PSNI.

Raskolnikov

Dub13 wrote:

Word going around is that this job was done by the Official IRA and not the Provos

If that's true (and I think it's highly unlikely) then Sinn Féin have commited political suicide.

Dub13

Raskolnikov wrote:

If that's true (and I think it's highly unlikely) then Sinn Féin have commited political suicide.

Sinn Féin have nothing to do with the official IRA

oscarBravo

finlma wrote:

I say all due respect to them. The banks rob from everyone of us every day and these guys were brave enough to pull a heist.

Endorsing grand larceny and kidnapping? Yeah, they're real heroes alright. What, you think these are Robin Hood figures? You think they're going to give the money to the bank's customers? Who do you think will foot this bill at the end of the day?

I mean, jaysus, what happened to morals?

marco murphy

Dub13 wrote:

Word going around is that this job was done by the Official IRA and not the Provos

Seriously doubt it.

Can i just say the robbers made either 2 runs or 4 runs with transporting the money.It took 45 mins to get back for the second,so it cant be too far outside belfast.

Officers were injured in a small riot,while searching somebodys house.

MrPudding

Raskolnikov wrote:

If it turns out that the houses of the men who were raided are not involved with the crime I wouldn't blame Sinn Féin for not signing up to the PSNI.

Why? Are the PSNI not allowed to make mistakes? Part of crime solving is finding evidence. Part of that is raiding the premises of suspects. They raided the houses with valid warrants. In order to get the warrants they would need some evidence. Oh no wait. This is the RUC they don't need evidence. They probably did this as part of their on going campaign of harassing innocent [strike]terrorists[/strike] freedom fighters.

The fact is police forces raid the house of people all the time as part of investigations. Sometime they are right and somtimes they are wrong. I appreciate that it is it a bit of / considerable hassle for the people invilved but that is life.

If Sinn Fein use this as an excuse to not sign up to the policing executive then that is bullsh1t. Why is it wrong only if a republican is a *victim* of a probably valid investigation?

MrP

Raskolnikov

MrPudding wrote:

Why? Are the PSNI not allowed to make mistakes? Part of crime solving is finding evidence. Part of that is raiding the premises of suspects. They raided the houses with valid warrants. In order to get the warrants they would need some evidence. Oh no wait. This is the RUC they don't need evidence. They probably did this as part of their on going campaign of harassing innocent [strike]terrorists[/strike] freedom fighters.

The fact is police forces raid the house of people all the time as part of investigations. Sometime they are right and somtimes they are wrong. I appreciate that it is it a bit of / considerable hassle for the people invilved but that is life.

So you accept that having some sort of evidence is needed in order to get a warrant to search anyones home? What if it turns out that Eddie Copeland had no involvement with the robbery. Will the PSNI then reveal what led them to the conclusion that Copeland was a possible suspect? Of course not, he was only targetted because his former links to the IRA (I saw former because he was ousted from the IRA by Robert Crawford). Not only that, but the man is hardly in a fit state to be preforming bank robberies. He's still wounded after being shot by a British soldier in 1993 (I'd like to add that he was unarmed and mourning the death of an IRA man in Shankill) and has also had his calf blown off in a car bomb attack.

If there is substantial evidence or proof that Copeland was involved with the robbery then I accept the raid was valid. Otherwise, it is victimisation.

MrPudding wrote:

Why is it wrong only if a republican is a *victim* of a probably valid investigation?

Sure why bother with an investigation at all if it's probably valid, lock him up :rolleyes:

MrPudding

Raskolnikov wrote:

He's still wounded after being shot by a British soldier in 1993 (I'd like to add that he was unarmed and mourning the death of an IRA man in Shankill) and has also had his calf blown off in a car bomb attack.

Yeah, my heart goes out to him. No seriously, it does. That was quite a sad funeral as well. Death by natural selection, it’s always tough. If only he had studied electronics a bit more vigorously, perhaps he would have been able to plant the bomb and only kill the innocent civilians. What of the rumours that our friend Eddie was the "mastermind" (I use that term most reservedly) behind the bombing his unfortunate friend died perpetrating? That aside, I do not support the state shooting people or punishing them without good reason or due process. I mention the stuff above not as a justification for him being shot while simply standing doing nothing, that was wrong, I mention as a good example of, sometimes, just sometimes, what goes around comes around. Also, I love irony.

Raskolnikov wrote:

If there is substantial evidence or proof that Copeland was involved with the robbery then I accept the raid was valid. Otherwise, it is victimisation.


Sure why bother with an investigation at all if it's probably valid, lock him up [img]file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CADMINI%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C05%5Cclip_image001.gif[/img]

How do you propose they carry out the investigation? Do you have any idea how investigations are carried out? I don't really but I presume that they start with possible suspects and try to build a case and find evidence. This seems reasonable to me, of course due process must be followed.

You seem to think that unless they know for sure someone is guilty the police should leave them alone. I'm sure you have heard the term Usual Suspects. You may even have seen the movie. Apparently that is pretty much how things work. A crime "goes down" and the police start to "look at" people that might have, or are connected with people that may have some experience of that kind of crime.

Seems perfectly reasonable and logical to me.

If it turn out that he is simply an innocent ex-terrorist then fine. He is not the first innocent person to be questioned or have his house searched during the course of an investigation, I am sure he will not be the last. Why is he special? Should he not be a suspect as he is an ex-terrorist? Or is it cos he is still injured?


I used the term probably becuase I do not know if it is vaild. I assume that it is but I am not sure. I certainly do not believe that our model citizen should be lock up without due process being followed.


MrP

monument

Bond-007 wrote:

The Idiots stole 20+ million in new nothernn notes, which will be almost impossible to get rid of as they are no good outside of NI and the bank and the police know the serial numbers. Very clever indeed.

Yeah, they must have been idiots; they were breaking into the Northern Bank's Head Office in Belfast, so they must have been expecting large quantities of Yen, or Canadian Dollars. Oh, yeah, sure, they must have been surprised when they found large quantities of Northern Bank branded notes.

lomb

northern bank reakon they might withdraw all their notes in january. this would be very funny. the money will be worthless. hahahaha

FTA69

The Sticks???
Those geriatrics can hardly tie their own shoes never mind commit a knock-over of this magnitude!

I also doubt it was the IRA who carried out this raid, do people here really think the political ramifications if the IRA were caught would be worth the results of this robbery? Not a chance, it would destroy Sinn Féin both here and abroad.

It could have been the INLA, the UVF or even a gang of criminals, stranger things have happened.

marco murphy

FTA69 wrote:

The Sticks???
Those geriatrics can hardly tie their own shoes never mind commit a knock-over of this magnitude!

LOL!

Capt'n Midnight

MrPudding wrote:

Paramilitaries are a convienient party to blame and are probably worth looking at by the PSNI. They tend to have lots of resources available, are reasonably good at keeping things quiet and some have experience with holding families hostage in order to get people to carry out tasks for them. Several car bombs were delivered in the past by men whose families where being held at gunpoint.

Let us never forget what Proxy Bombs were people tied into car bombs and forced to commit suicide for the sake of their families. Any organisation that can use that tatic would have little scruples with anything else.

No I can't imagine a criminal gang trying this out in NI, just too many groups with guns out after you. No doubt at some stage there will be an OJ Simpson type announcement by one or more paramilitary group about they will vow to catch the real perpertrators.

Anyone know about the financial status of any of the groups in NI - be very interested to see if any of them get a windfall soon.

Does the currency change mean that NI will join the Euro soon ?

MrPudding

I don't think it is a currency change, just the notes themselves. They will still be GBPs. It would be soooo cool if they did move to € but I doubt if a bank can make the decision.

MrP

Redleslie2

mike65 wrote:

The O'Marcos household was raided presumably...

Mike.

Boards quip of the year reckons I.

Cork

POLICE in Northern Ireland have concluded that the IRA was almost certainly responsible for last week’s £22m (€31m) robbery of Northern Bank in Belfast.

Link

The conviction last month of Niall Binead, a Sinn Fein activist, by the Special Criminal Court illustrated once again the umbilical links between Sinn Fein and the IRA and also the republican movement’s continuing obsession with crime and espionage, north and south of the border.

Link

“You cannot be a criminal and a republican activist. You cannot be involved in any criminality and involved in republican activism,” Mr Adams said.

The SDLP rounded on Gerry Adams over his claim there can be no link between criminality and republican activism.

How does Adams and SF maintain that the IRA funds itself?

If the IRA wre involbed in the NI bank raid - It would be a massive blow to the Good Friday Agreement.

Victor

Whats the betting on ex-military types being involved?

MrPudding wrote:

I heard it said that the robbers were probably very surprised at the amount of cash in the vault, it is reckoned that they expected nowhere near that amount.

Its the headquarters of a bank. What did they expect? Piggy banks?

spongebob

Victor wrote:

Whats the betting on ex-military types being involved?

Provos Evens
ex UDR/RIR 5-1
UDA 5-1
UVF 8-1
INLA 10-1
Ex Plod 20-1
Villains 20-1
Ex Briitsh Army Regulars 25-1
IPLO 50-1
RIRA 50-1
CIRA 100-1
LVF 100-1
Ulster Resistance 500-1
Official IRA 1000-1

M

Victor

No odds for, eh, banks robbers / ODCs?

spongebob

Muck wrote:

Villains 20-1

M

BCB

I have no doubts it was the Provos, no other paramilitary grouping (or criminals) has the capability of pulling off such a massive heist,even if it wasnt sanctioned by the Army Council my guess it was carried out by senior members of the Provos have become disillisoned with the GFA and perhaps want to finance a campaign of armed resistance against the British,id be dumstruck if it turned out to be anybody else but the Provisional IRA........

BCB

Muck wrote:

Provos Evens
ex UDR/RIR 5-1
UDA 5-1
UVF 8-1
INLA 10-1
Ex Plod 20-1
Villains 20-1
Ex Briitsh Army Regulars 25-1
IPLO 50-1
RIRA 50-1
CIRA 100-1
LVF 100-1
Ulster Resistance 500-1
Official IRA 1000-1

M

Provos 1-50 FAV

500-1 Bar...

Cork

BCB wrote:

id be dumstruck if it turned out to be anybody else but the Provisional IRA........

But even if this is the case - their supporters will maintain that such criminality does not break the Good Friday Agreement.

Sinn Fein is also against criminality of any sort. And we deeply resent any attempt to besmirch republicans with that label.

Link

The killing of Jerry McCabe resulted from criminality on the part of Republicans.
link

Niall Binead, 35, of Faughart Road, Crumlin, and Kenneth Donohoe, 26, of Sundale Avenue, Mountain View, Tallaght, had been found guilty of membership of an illegal organisation at the Special Criminal Court on November 18.

Mr Binead, a father of four, had been found with documents in his house which included surveillance details on a number of politicians and Dublin criminals.

Bertie Ahern, has called on the IRA to make a clear statement on ending illegal activity. But the IRA has still to make such a statement.

But looking up the SDLP website:

SDLP Deputy Leader Alasdair McDonnell said Sinn Fein is in denial about IRA criminality and the role of the IMC in exposing and highlighting it.



He said: “The IMC has made some mistakes and the SDLP has been clear about them. But Sinn Fein is going to extraordinary lengths to deny the basic truths that everyone knows and the IMC highlighted.
.

Link

Irish polititicians have brought IRA criminality to our attention. Far from being in a state of deniel - such criminality has to be stopped.

If IRA were involved in this raid - I fear it will be a sereve blow to the Peace Process.

true

Sinn Fein are hippocrites and liars of the first degree. I cannot understand why more people do not see them for what they are. They should do the decent thing and get the provos to get rid of some semtex and offensive ( as opposed to defensive ) type weaponry.

A Dub in Glasgo

true wrote:

They should do the decent thing and get the provos to get rid of some semtex and offensive ( as opposed to defensive ) type weaponry.

See my reply to you in the decommissioning thread

true

I read it but it does not matter. There is no proof or even list of what the provos actually decomissioned, if anything. After all these years, the Irish and British people want them to try harder. They have, after all, by far the biggest arsenal of illegal arms in the country. Have they got rid of any semtex , for example? Why would they hang on to 30 tons of this ? We all know what it can do in the wrong hands e.g. look at Omagh. Why would they want to hang on to so much explosives and guns? There are not that many more Northern banks to rob.
Why would a Dub in Glasgow want to defend them hanging on to so much?