‘It was the speed at which it was carried out and the money they got away with without leaving any evidence behind’

True crime series 'The Case I Can't Forget' returns to RTE ONE this week with the first episode focusing on the notorious ATM digger raids carried out across Meath, Cavan and Monaghan in 2018 and 2019.

Among the most brazen and daring crimes of the past decade, the gang members literally ripped ATMs from the wall using stolen diggers to net more than €700,000 in five successful raids- including two carried out in Kells on the same night- before eventually being caught in the act as they attempted to steal an ATM in Virginia, Co Cavan.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) night's episode will feature never-before-seen CCTV footage of the crimes in action, as well as interviews with officers from the Garda Emergency Response Unit and local Intelligence Units, to reveal the gripping details of the covert operation to retrieve the stolen cash and smash the criminal ring.

Among the officers interviewed for the programme is Alan Cunningham, then Detective Superintendent for the Northern Region who was heavily involved in the investigation.

In an interview with the Meath Chronicle last week, Alan recalled the incredible pressure that An Garda Siochana was coming under to apprehend the gang and the relief when intelligence enabled them to literally catch them in the act as they attempted to make off with another ATM- this time from the Riverbank Hotel in Virginia in August 2019. He also recalled the "sheer devastation" in Kells in the wake of the raids when he visited the town the next morning after both banks had been hit.

At the time of the ATM heists, Alan was Detective-Superintendent for the Northern Region which included Cavan, Monaghan, Louth, Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal. While Meath was not in his region, he worked closely with local officers in the county and liaised with the Eastern Region as they worked to crack the case that gripped the nation. Incident rooms were set up in Bailieboro and Kells Garda stations and a huge amount of man hours went into trawling CCTV and gathering data from phone masts.

Recalling the crimes, five years on, Alan said what really struck him was the speed at which the thefts were carried out.

"It was the speed at which it was carried out. How quickly it happened and then I suppose the amount of money and then to be able to get away without leaving any visible evidence behind, there was no forensics and there was nothing to follow through."

It took only about four minutes to carry out both ATM thefts in Kells. The cash machines were loaded onto the back of a crewcab jeep and driven off. With Kells Garda Station just 500m away, Alan said the gang made sure to take extra precautions by putting metal rods or 'stingers' on the road.

Over a nine month period between December 2018 and August 2019, the criminal gang carried out successful heists at Ballybay, Co Monaghan, Kingscourt, Co Cavan, Casteblayney, Ardee, Co Louth, Co Monaghan and struck twice in Kells on the same night to make off with €230,000 from the Bank of Ireland ATM and €240,000 from the AIB ATM across the street.

The Kells raids were carried out on 19th April 2019, Easter weekend, and Alan said they would have planned for this knowing that the ATMs would be full for the Bank Holiday weekend. "They would have been choosing those weekends to hit knowing that with people out socialising, a bigger demand and with the bank being closed on the Monday, that they would be putting maximum cash in."

The morning after Kells was targeted, Alan visited the town and clearly recalls what he describes as the "sheer devastation on the street".

"The two ATMs ripped out and the building just hanging there. The street was blocked off. The whole town came to a standstill. The whole commercial heart of the town was affected then because obviously people couldn't go in and get their cash out so they were going to other towns and maybe getting their cash out of ATMs there and go into the shop and spend their money there so it had a huge after effect for the local community and the local business people."

The trailer and the empty ATMs were discovered not too far away at Barley Hill near Kingscourt on the Meath/Monaghan border where they had been dumped and set alight. While Danny O'Callaghan a three-time All-Ireland Club medal winner with Crossmaglen Rangers was on the investigators' radar, this led them to believe there was also a local base.

"We had indicators from intelligence that probably Danny O'Callaghan would have been involved. The Duffy brothers wouldn't have been on the radar as such. Our focus would have been looking at Danny O'Callaghan, Crossmaglen, that south Armagh area. We thought maybe he had other people from that area involved with him but I suppose what triggered the thing for us as such was Kells.

"They went and did the raid in Kells and they weren't going to drive back to south Armagh from Kells- it was too big a distance and there was too much risk involved. Then the trailer with the two empty ATM turned up in Barley Hill in the forested area. They had put petrol on the two ATMs and trailers and set them on fire so they wouldn't leave any forensic evidence or DNA on them.

"The fact that was still in the area, we suspected they had to have a base close by so that put a new dynamic on our investigation and a new focus as to where we were going."

Already working on investigating the previous incidents, Alan was able to give guidance to local officers in Kells on gathering CCTV, collecting mobile phone data and collecting intelligence with a huge amount of man hours going into the investigation.

As heists continued and the culprits remained at large, Alan recalled the mounting pressure to apprehend the gang.

"There was a huge amount of pressure on. The Minister for Justice was getting on to the Garda Commissioner and saying what is happening? Are you not getting this sorted out? This is getting ridiculous now at this stage. That sort of pressure was coming down upon us. It was a lot of pressure at the time. For the whole force."

It was intelligence in advance of the Virginia raid that eventually brought the gang down as Gardai were able put in place surveillance and an operation to finally arrest the gang members.

"The only way you were going to get them was to get the intelligence, get ahead of them and be waiting for them to do the job. Then being able to sterilise the area without giving away what you were doing. I had to make contact with the local superintendent and say there might be something happening there tonight and if there are gardai locally there, to bring them to Bailieboro or away from Virginia. The last thing we wanted was for the guards to stumble upon them maybe just before they'd do it and scare them off.

"The other thing was the danger for them as well if they did. That they might drive across gardai with the digger or hit them. We had to be careful of all that and the general public. We would have had touched base with the hotel to make sure there was nobody staying in the rooms up above where the ATM was."

Foiling that attempted raid in Virginia and arresting the suspects was a huge relief to Alan and the investigating officers.

"It really took the pressure off and probably made us look good as well. Speaking to the PSNI officers investigating similar ones in the North, they were ringing and wanting to know how did we get them. There was huge interest in it afterwards."

However, the work doesn't end with the arrests and Alan and his team then had to build their case.

"We had to pull it all together, get a file and get CCTV, get every bit of evidence. Thousands upon thousands of hours of work went into it. Getting them - I wouldn't say was a small part, it was a vital part - but the follow up afterwards was crucial then. You don't want any flaws in the case or all your good work goes down the drain then."

Alan has investigated many high profile cases including the feud in Drogheda and the Kevin Lunney kidnap case in his decades in the force. However, the ATM heist case was the one he got most satisfaction out of solving. " I would have got more satisfaction out that one than anything because of the brazenness of the gang and they thought they'd never be caught and to catch them on the job, there was great satisfaction in that.”

RTÉ One’s hit true crime series, The Case I Can’t Forget, returns from Wednesday, October 2nd, at 9.35pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.