THREE NABBED IN BIG N. IRELAND BANK HEIST

Nov 2, 8:33 PM (ET)

By CHRIS THORNTON

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) - Police made their first arrests in last year's $47 million bank robbery, one of Europe's largest ever, officials said Wednesday. The theft was blamed on the IRA and tarnished its image, despite repeated denials.

The arrest of a 30-year-old man Wednesday in Belfast came a day after two others were taken into custody in the city of Kilcoo, police said.

The IRA-linked Sinn Fein political party protested the arrests, claiming they were politically motivated. Member Willie Clarke argued that the men were targeted because they've supported the IRA's cause.

The alleged involvement of the IRA in the December robbery was a setback for Sinn Fein, which represents most of the Catholics in the province, in negotiations over a power sharing agreement.

Since the robbery, the IRA has declared that it has disarmed and scrapped its hidden weapons stockpiles - moves that have raised hopes of reviving a joint Catholic-Protestant administration.
A senior police official denied political motivation, saying that officers had acted on tip-offs.

"We are where we are in no small part due to the support and information provided openly and anonymously by the community," said acting detective chief superintendent Phil Aiken, who is heading the police investigation.

Police declined to identify the men arrested Tuesday. But local media said they were Dominic McEvoy, 23, and Peter Morgan, 24.

McEvoy's mother, Irene Carlin, denied her son was involved in the robbery or aligned with the IRA. "We like a quiet life," she said.

Police have said the operation behind the Dec. 20 robbery involved months of planning. Gangs with inside knowledge of the Northern Bank's operations held the families of two employees hostage until the bank's main vault was cleared out.

Officials have recovered about $16 million from the heist. Though one of Europe's largest, it was smaller than a $65 million theft from a London safe deposit center in 1987, a $70 million robbery in Brazil this year, and a $900 million-plus heist from the Iraq Central Bank in 2003.