GARDAI investigating a €170,000 tiger kidnapping in which the wife of a bank official was abducted have arrested a suspect.
A group of Coolock criminals are believed to have carried out the raid in which the wife of the bank official was threatened.
Bill Hoyne, a senior executive at Brinks Allied, and his wife Shirley were subjected to a terrifying ordeal at their home in Monasterboice, Co Louth, in the incident.
The gang made off with €170,000 -- but it's believed they missed out on at least €20m in cash stored at the Brinks Allied depot in Clonshaugh.
A man in his 40s was arrested yesterday morning after gardai conducted searches on six houses on the Dublin northside.
Handgun
The searches formed part of an operation by gardai from the Dublin Metropolitan and Louth regions, supported by gardai from the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Emergency Response Unit.
A handgun was also seized during the investigation.
Mrs Hoyne was abducted and had her life threatened repeatedly during the raid on November 6, while her husband was brought to the Brinks Allied cash depot in Clonshaugh, where he was forced to hand over the money.
She was tied up and gagged in a shed behind a derelict building in Howth, Co Dublin, close to where the gang burnt out one of their cars.
Mrs Hoyne was released after firefighters, who were called to the scene by passers-by after her Mercedes car was set on fire by the gang, heard her banging on the shed.
The kidnappers, in boiler suits and masks, burst into the couple's home in Monasterboice at around 9pm on the Friday and held them at gunpoint.
Then, before dawn, they bundled Mrs Hoyne into her silver Mercedes and drove to the Howth Road, where they left her bound and gagged.
Her husband was forced to go to the Brinks Allied depot in Clonshaugh, Dublin, at 7.30am in his Toyota Landcruiser.
hnews@herald.ie