Alleged stolen car parts seized in Lunney raids

Gardaí investigating the violent abduction and torture of Quinn Industrial Holdings executive Kevin Lunney have retrieved a large amount of alleged stolen car parts and other documentation following a series of planned raids last week.

The large cache of equipment was seized by gardaí during a concerted and orchestrated operation last Friday involving three police forces on both sides of the Irish Sea.

It also resulted in the death of the alleged mastermind of the brutal kidnap and horrific torture of the Quinn Industrial Holdings (QIH) businessman last month.

Career criminal and the man suspected of organising Mr Lunney’s abduction, Cyril McGuinness, died of a suspected heart attack when Derbyshire Police raided a property in the East Midlands last Friday morning.

The Leader revealed back in September how the 54-year-old, who could not be named at the time, was quickly identified as being one of the chief suspects behind the attack on Mr Lunney.

A large slice of that probe was centred on the Dubliner’s close ties with a number of well known criminal figures from the north Longford and Cavan areas.

Otherwise known as ‘Dublin Jimmy’ and based in the Derrylin area, McGuinness was extradited to Belgium in 2011 for stealing construction and farm machinery.

Garda sources believe his gang stole up to 20 trucks and cranes in Belgium and the Netherlands in 2006 and 2007 and brought them back to Ireland, where some of the machinery was used to to steal ATMs on both sides of the border.

And it’s precisely those criminal links which gardaí are satisfied brought him into contact with a string of violent criminals who had also struck up a reputation for machinery thefts in the north Longford area.

The Leader understands parts belonging to around half a dozen allegedly stolen Transit vans and which were in the process of being chopped up, were seized from an industrial premises on the outskirts of Granard last Friday.

Two other properties, including one in Edgeworthstown, were also searched.

This newspaper can also reveal the prime targets of those raids are currently before the courts in relation to other serious, but unrelated matters due for decision over the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar TD met with the five directors of Quinn Industrial Holdings and he thanked Kevin Lunney for the resilience he has shown following his barbaric abduction, assault and torture.

Mr Varadkar assured the QIH directors that 'their own security, that of their employees, and law and order in the border region is treated with the utmost seriousness at the top of Government'.

He added, "Law and order must, and will, prevail in all parts of the country. We agreed to stay in contact as the criminal investigation against the perpetrators proceeds."

Read also: Gardai carry out raids in Cavan following abduction and torture of Quinn Industrial Holdings director Kevin Lunney