How the ‘Hole in the Wall’ gang came unstuck in Virginia
The ATM raids in Kells on Easter weekend 2019 marked the beginning of the end for the hole in the wall gang members (see pages 10-11).
Those behind the daring double heist seemed to give two fingers to the garda response effort by laying spikes on the road outside the local station.
Less than 500 metres away, it took the gang less than five minutes to tear from the walls two ATMs using a digger and load them onto the back of a dark coloured crewcab jeep and trailer before making good their escape.
A second vehicle, a Volkswagen Passat, used to watch the unfurling confusion outside the garda station left soon after in the direction of the Maudlin Road, towards Carlanstown.
The empty ATM shells were subsequently found abandoned and laid open in a wooded area five kilometres outside Kingscourt, at Barley Hill, located near the Meath-Monaghan border. A burnt-out SUV and trailer were also found nearby as was the gang’s modus operandi - crash, smash, burn.
The Kells’ thefts in the early hours of Friday, April 19, brought the number of ATMs stolen in counties Cavan, Monaghan and Meath to five from the start of the year; with further raids north of the border.
The Bank of Ireland ATM contained €230,000; while the AIB machine had €240,000 inside. Both had been freshly stocked in expectation of the impending Easter Bank-Holiday.
Before that the gang managed to make off with €111,910 after stealing the ATM from Bank of Ireland in Ballybay on December 16, 2018, during which they blocked off the road with a trailer and tractor to prevent gardaí from following them.
A further €125,100 was taken from the ATM stolen at Kingscourt on March 10, 2019; and €70,000 from the ATM at AIB in Castleblayney on April 3, 2019, where almost the same sum in damage was caused to the Main Street building.
Minister for Justice Charles Flanagan promised a quick response. But it was hard graft and intelligence work on the ground that led gardaí in the direction of three brothers who its honed their respective digger driving skills whilst working in the mines in Australia.
Known to skirt the border with ease, the garda focus was soon shared on a group of their close-knit pals also.
From then on, the gang’s every move was tracked.
Locally, the investigation into the six ATM raids - Cavan, Monaghan, Meath - was led by investigators working out of Bailieborough Garda Station, together with colleagues in the wider Cavan-Monaghan Division, as well as Kells Garda Station.
Retired Chief Superintendent John O’Reilly and Detective Superintendent Alan Cunningham were both heavily involved in the probe, while undercover detectives attached to the Phoenix Park’s National Surveillance Unit engaged with security counterparts north of the border to expand the scope of the enquiries.
The attempted theft of the ATM at the Riverfront Bar and Restaurant on Main Street, Virginia in the early hours of August 14, 2019, seemed at first sight to have been just as meticulously planned as the others.
After liberating a 14-ton digger from the construction site of the new fire station on the Bailieborough Road, gardaí watched as the gang travelled in convoy to the centre of Virginia town.
A stolen grey Toyota Landcruiser was used to pull a trailer into which the gang intended to cart off the stolen ATM from where it would be taken to their base of operations at a premises at Tullypole, Moynalty, Co Meath.
What The Anglo-Celt has since learned is that one of the gang members, acting as a ‘spotter’ for the others, became spooked by an apparent movement in a vehicle further down the street at a time when few others should have been about.
But the draw of the ATM bounty awaiting the gang member proved too good to pass up, and ultimately this rush of greed would prove fatal to their best laid plan.
Just as the members manoeuvred into position, as they’d done many times before, gardaí from the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) swooped.
Gardaí had been placed on high-alert all weekend on suspicion the gang might strike again. The threat prompted a significant, yet not obvious presence throughout the region, with checkpoints conducted in the Kingscourt, Bailieborough and Mullagh areas.
But really Gardaí hierarchy figured Virginia might be the gang’s next target - a centrally located ATM, well used and therefore stocked with cash, and most importantly the town had multiple entry and escape routes.
When the specialist armed gardaí landed on the scene, they immediately rammed what was a stolen SUV the raiders were using. Such was the panic their arrival caused, the raiders fled in all directions.
Former All-Ireland club football champion Daniel O’Callaghan (31) was identified by an undercover officer as he fled the landcruiser with another; while a third man alighted from the digger. All three jumped over a wall into a nearby field.
O’Callaghan’s DNA would later found in a sauna in a nearby shed where he was hiding. The owner of the shed told gardaí he suspected an intruder had interfered with the insulation in the shed’s attic.
Gerard Duffy (31) of Greagh, Loughnamore, Co Monaghan, was nabbed later that same day in a field near Lough Ramor, after a massive ground search with air support overhead.
After his arrest, he asked gardaí “do you think I’m f****d?”.
Ciaran Duffy (29) of the same address, was apprehended in the Riverfront toilet after being flushed out of his original hiding place. Phone camera footage from the time showed Ciaran Duffy running through the Main Street with gardaí in pursuit.
Hours after the botched raid, gardaí searched the gang’s base at Tullypole where they discovered more than €438,000 hidden in various locations, as well as buried in the ground. Some was even found hidden in a secret compartment above a garage door.
Six days later (August 20) gardaí returned to find Stephen Duffy (35) of Tullynahinera, Castleblayney, Co Monaghan and his brother Ciaran - both of whom had just been released from garda custody - and Niall Finnegan (39) from Cullyhanna, South Armagh.
They had been observed by members of the NSU initially arriving to the site in a Berlingo van driven by Finnegan, where a digger was used to unearth two packages of cash.
The men then left but returned soon after, this time in a Toyota Avensis, registered in a false name, where €15,000 was placed in the footwell of the car and €88,930 in the boot.
After, gardaí also searched the Castleblayney home of Stephen Duffy where they found a further €15,000 stashed in a ride-on lawnmower.
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