Garda crime scene investigators carrying out a technical examination at the ATM in Clones Town on August 1. Photo Rory Geary
Gardaí and the PSNI are exploring whether a gang behind a daring overnight raid on an ATM in Monaghan in August were also behind a cross border armed robbery during the early hours of this morning.
Security staff at a filling station in the Aughnacloy area of Armagh were threatened just before 7am by a gang of men wearing boiler suits and masks while armed with suspected firearms.
The incident, which detectives believe bore the hallmarks of an organised crime gang, took place when the security firm personnel were attending an ATM on the Caledon Road.
The group ordered staff into the ATM bunker then removed cash boxes from the security van and the ATM before making off from the scene in a dark coloured vehicle, with a substantial sum of cash.
Despite no injuries having been reported, senior PSNI officials have said the security staff were left “shocked” by their ordeal.
As those investigations continue, gardaí are also looking into the possibility that the same gang orchestrated an overnight raid on an ATM in Clones less than 40km away.
That incident came after thieves targeted the independently owned machine which was stationed at the town’s former Ulster Bank building shortly before 2am on August 1.
It’s understood the gang wrenched open a steel security door in order to try and secure access to the ATM.
Although the ATM itself was left intact, an undisclosed sum of cash was taken in the heist.
The scene itself was sealed off for a full technical examination as gardaí also procured CCTV from various approach roads in and out of the west Monaghan town.
Those efforts were made in a bid to identify both the identities of those involved and two vehicles detectives believe were used during the course of the raid.
Gardaí have been focusing much of those inquiries on a Ford Transit van and silver Audi which were spotted in and around the scene of the robbery.
Sources believe the episode may also be linked to a similar incident just days previously in Jonesborough, a small village along the Armagh-Louth border.
Part of that belief is based on the involvement of the Audi which senior investigators believe was also used in the Jonesborough raid.