Police probe dissident plot to blow up lorry in Irish Sea crossing on Brexit day

Q Radio news

Police in Northern Ireland are investigating a potential dissident republican plot to blow up a lorry due to cross the Irish Sea on Brexit Day.

Officers are investigating a link to a ferry crossing to Scotland on January 31 and a bomb found on a heavy goods vehicle in Co Armagh earlier this week.

Police received a report that an explosive device was on a lorry in Belfast docks last Friday, the day the UK left the EU.

The report received by police claimed the ferry was due to travel to Scotland.

An intensive search was carried out but nothing was found, and the ferry sailed as planned.

But three days later, on Monday, officers received a further report that a device was attached to a lorry belonging to a named haulage company.

🎥 @PoliceServiceNI Assistant Chief Constable George Clarke says a “viable device” planted on a lorry last week was to go off as the UK left the EU.The Brexit night bomb plot has been blamed on the CIRA. Explosive planted in Lurgan was expected to travel from Belfast to Scotland. pic.twitter.com/qhtvsA1HY8

— Q Radio News (@qnewsdesk) February 6, 2020

After a two-day operation, which involved the search of 400 vehicles, an explosive device was found attached to a heavy goods vehicle in the Silverwood Industrial Estate in Lurgan, Co Armagh. It was made safe by Army bomb disposal officers.

It is understood that the bomb was discovered on the trailer unit of a lorry owned by a haulage company that specialises in transporting frozen goods across the UK, Ireland and Europe.

Police have appealed for anyone who saw anything suspicious on the estate between 4pm and 10pm on Brexit Day to come forward.

Detective Superintendent Sean Wright, from the Police Service of Northern Ireland's Terrorism Investigation Unit, said: "It is clear from the information available to police that dissident republicans deliberately and recklessly attached an explosive device to a heavy goods vehicle in the full knowledge and expectation that it would put the driver of that vehicle, road users and the wider public at serious risk of injury and possible death.

"Had this vehicle travelled and the device had exploded at any point along the M1, across the Westlink (link road through Belfast) or into the Harbour estate, the risks posed do not bear thinking about.

"The only conclusion that we can draw is that, once again, dissident republicans have shown a total disregard for the community, for businesses and for wider society."

PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne gave members of his oversight body - the NI Policing Board - an outline brief on the incident at their monthly meeting in Belfast on Thursday afternoon.

Afterwards, Sinn Fein's policing spokesman, Gerry Kelly, said there could have been "catastrophic loss of life" if the device had detonated on board a ferry.

"The fact is this could have ended up on a ferry," he told the PA news agency.

"If it had exploded, you are talking about catastrophic loss of life, and whoever planted this bomb needs to know that."

Asked if he believed the attack was timed to coincide with Brexit, Mr Kelly said: "From the detail we have here that's a possibility, but, whatever the reason, there is no logic around it except to cause death and destruction.

"And to what purpose? There is no purpose and they need to desist and go off the stage and move away from any such actions."

Ulster Unionist policing spokesman Doug Beattie called on the UK Government to take robust action against the dissidents.

"This was no minor device, this was a very deliberate attempt to cause an explosion on a ferry, and, given the inherent instability of these devices, it could easily have detonated in the lorry's yard, on the M1, in the middle of Belfast or on a ferry itself in the middle of the Irish Sea," he said.

"Without a doubt it was an attempt to isolate Northern Ireland from the rest of Great Britain by creating a threat to on-board ferry traffic.

"Had it exploded on the ferry, it could have created a fireball that would have taken the route of least resistance and spread through open spaces, walkways and corridors to engulf anyone in its path, be they men, women or children.

"Had this been on a ferry from Dover to Calais, the UK Government would be mobilising every asset possible to track down the perpetrators - I call on them to do so with this, and treat it as the national security threat which it is.

"We are dealing with people here who do not give a damn about the safety of anyone else. These are the type of fascists who bombed Omagh and who have taken their cue from those (the IRA) who organised the Bloody Friday, La Mon and Enniskillen bombings.

"It is clear that violent republicans do not care for the people of Northern Ireland, regardless of what community they come from. They are sadistic, career terrorists who need to be locked up for a very long time."

Mr Wright said he wanted to hear from anyone who noticed any suspicious activity in the industrial estate between 4pm and 10pm on January 31.

"In addition, I ask that anyone who was driving in the area and who would have dash-cam footage around these same times that they contact police, as a matter of urgency," he added.