THE last major spate of so-called 'tiger' kidnappings -- between 2004 and 2006 -- in Dublin came to an end when specialist teams of highly experienced detectives were put together.

The Dublin garda teams, at the time led by Assistant Commissioner Martin Donnellan and spearheaded by Detective Superintendent Dominic Hayes, first broke the gangs' security and then caught them, occasionally red-handed, or on firearms or other offences.

Since then Donnellan has retired and Hayes has transferred out of Dublin.

The gangs responsible for the recent kidnappings learned from their predecessors' mistakes. They have studied gardai's methods of operations and are moving their kidnappings out of Dublin, where bank staff and their families are more vulnerable and gangs have less chance of being caught.

One former senior Dublin detective told the Sunday Independent that it was "natural" for the gangs to move out of the city. He said Dublin gangs were aware that investigations would be left in the hands of local gardai, who have none of the intelligence sources on the gangs' activities and less experience in detecting serious crime.

The rate of kidnap/ransom crime is set to continue at its current high levels even though most of the gangs responsible are well known to gardai in Dublin.

The latest kidnapping/ransom attempt in Kilkenny failed because the gang was simply too greedy and not prepared to accept the sum of €300,000 understood to be available in the Bank of Ireland in Kilkenny where former hurling star Adrian Ronan works. As in other recent cases, the gang had local insider information and had Mr Ronan, his wife Mary and their three young children under surveillance.

The Ronans had to endure an eight-hour ordeal before the gang gave up on their demands and released Mrs Ronan unhurt at a disused weather station outside the city at around 2pm on Tuesday. The gang had demanded €3m, and kept pressing Mr Ronan after he told them there was nowhere near this sum in the BoI branch.

The gang's modus operandi was identical to that used in other such crimes, with Mr Ronan being given a pre-paid phone and having his own phone taken from him. The couple were shown a gun, and Mr Ronan was repeatedly told the gang was going to kill his wife. At one stage the gang fired a shot to emphasise the threat to Mrs Ronan's life and put more pressure on her husband. The ordeal lasted from around 6am to 2pm, when they finally gave up.

The raid came nine days after a similar kidnapping in Lucan, Co Dublin, in which another Bank of Ireland employee was targeted. Gardai in Dublin have a good idea of who is responsible for this crime and who their source of information was, but there was no indication at the end of last week that they were near to arrests.

In this case the husband of the bank manager and their children -- aged six and three -- were taken as hostages, again with the threat to kill them if their demands were not met. The wife was able to take a substantial amount of money -- again believed to be €300,000 -- from the bank and hand it over to the gang, leaving it in a car at Liffey Gael's GAA Club, close to the BoI branch in Inchicore where she works.

In both cases the Garda's public reaction has been to appeal for information from potential eyewitnesses who might have seen cars involved. According to Garda sources, however, detectives are struggling with a number of protocols on how these investigations are carried out. Senior gardai in areas outside Dublin where the robberies are taking place are said to be unhappy at the way that they are not privy to security arrangements between banks and the Garda's Crime and Security Section in Dublin.

When a robbery takes place, the bank staff notify the Crime and Security Section, which then alerts specialist teams such as the Emergency Response Unit and National Surveillance Unit before the local superintendent.

Gardai in the provincial centres where the robberies are increasingly taking place are complaining of being "left out of the loop" in the early stages of crimes, and say this hampers their subsequent investigations.

Gardai in Dublin were able to display the effect of local working knowledge earlier this year when they learned that a tiger kidnapping was under way, and set about searching likely sites for a handover, detaining a man and seizing the ransom.

Garda sources in Dublin, however, say they know the main gangs carrying out the robberies but that the systems for apprehending them no longer appear to be working. The main suspects in the Lucan kidnapping are a west Dublin gang which specialises in armed robbery. One of the leaders is a multiple killer, drug dealer and highly experienced armed robber. Another member is a close associate, who is suspected of a number of murders and involvement in the drug trade. Both are from south-west Dublin.

RMI, one of the leading security firms working with banks and other cash-handling companies in Ireland, said that in nine out of 10 cases the security procedures established to take place in the event of a tiger kidnapping are not carried out. The firm's CEO, Cathal O'Neill, said that this was because the "demeanour" of the staff involved changed as they were plunged into potentially life-threatening situations.

"The proliferation of tiger kidnap crimes over the past few years is certainly alarming. Despite much work by the banks, CIT (cash in transit) companies and the gardai, the trend of tiger kidnapping against their staff has been upward. We predict this will not change, and the tactics may become more sophisticated," he said.

He added that kidnappings had become popular among criminals, based partly on their response to the IRA's massive tiger kidnap robbery of the Northern Bank in 2004.

"It is a relatively simple model," he said. "The PIRA kidnap methodology and each 'tiger' is likely to yield significant returns. The proof is in the apparent ease and success to date. There is little up-front risk -- it is largely an 'at arm's length' crime.

"The criminals rightly ask: why take on sophisticated security systems and procedures when they can minimise risk to themselves by avoiding exposure to security systems at the target and on way to/from the target location. They are also bypassing the need to defeat intruder alarms, remote monitoring, and time-locks by getting the 'victim' to be the robber during office hours.

"This reduces the risk of forensic contamination at a target site, particularly as they may not have time to 'clean up' afterwards. It also avoids the risk of having to use weapons, reduces time constraints and thus increases flexibility."

Sunday Independent