Probe into dissident republican plot to blow up lorry linked to ferry crossing on Brexit Day
Bomb found on vehicle in Lurgan
Last updated 6th Feb 2020
The PSNI is investigating a potential dissident republican plot to blow up a lorry due to cross the Irish Sea on Brexit day.
Officers are probing 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.
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.
Officers have appealed for anyone who saw anything suspicious in 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.''
Detective Superintendent 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 said.
It is understood the bomb was found on the trailer unit of a lorry owned by a haulage company that specialises in transporting frozen goods across the UK, Ireland and Europe.
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.
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.''