FOUR MEN questioned about a foiled cash robbery last week, in which a man was shot dead by gardaí, have been released from custody without charge.
The men were released yesterday morning after being held for 72 hours.
They were questioned about the foiled robbery last Friday on a G4S cash-in-transit van delivering money to a Centra shop ATM in the Foxborough estate, Lucan, Co Dublin.
The targeted van was carrying €1 million.
A postmortem on the remains of the dead man – Gareth Molloy (28), Sheriff Street, Dublin – has concluded he was wounded three times. The raider who was shot but survived was wounded twice.
All five shots were fired by one garda. Sources said it was possible one of the bullets passed through the body of one of the raiders and also wounded the other man.
The injured man, a 26-year-old with an address near Sheriff Street, has undergone surgery and remains seriously ill in Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown.
Garda sources said one of the men fired a shot from a sawn off shotgun to intimidate the G4S van crew just after the robbery attempt began at noon.
Gardaí then moved in and shouted at the armed man to drop his weapon. When he did not comply, the officer opened fire.
The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission is investigating the incident and in the coming days will interview the garda involved.
Three of the four arrested men were travelling in a stolen car and could be charged with that offence.
However, it may prove difficult to link the three men to the robbery attempt because they had not played an active role in the raid’s execution by the time gardaí intervened.
The men’s car was at the scene but it sped away when gardaí appeared. Their car was brought to a stop by gardaí a short distance away.
The fourth man arrested was detained in his own car not far from the crime scene.
He had not played an active part in the robbery by the time gardaí arrived and he may not face any charges.
However, the investigation is continuing and a file will be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions in the coming weeks on the alleged role of the four in the raid.
The arrested men are all in their 20s. Two are cousins from the north inner city who are related to a major gangland figure. The other two are from the Foxdene area of Lucan, immediately adjacent to the scene of the botched raid.
The four men were questioned at Ronanstown and Lucan Garda stations.
Surveillance was placed on some of the men recently because they are members of a north inner city gang that has been very heavily involved in bank raids and cash-in-transit robberies in recent months.
Intelligence thrown up by the surveillance led gardaí to watch the men closely last Friday and put a Garda operation in place at the scene of the attempted raid on Foxborough Road.
