Arms raid embarrasses Ulster authorities

Press, 24 February 1987, Page 10

Arms raid embarrasses Ulster authorities

NZPA-PA Belfast The Secretary for Ulster, Tom King, was handed preliminary police reports yesterday into Northern Ireland’s biggest arms raid.

A Loyalist gang forced their way into a highsecurity Ulster Defence Regiment (U.D.R.) armoury at Coleraine, County Londonderry, on Sunday and made off with about 170 rifles and pistols, boxes of ammunition, binoculars and other equipment But they were captured within hours and the weapons recovered.

The gang is believed to have links with a Protestant paramilitary organisation.

The Army is also carrying out its own investigation into how the gang managed to cut through the perimeter fence of the base and overpower guards, before spending two hours loading the guns into a U.D.R. van and driving off.

The Northern Ireland Office, which is desperately trying to win over Catholic support for the U.D.R., an overwhelmingly Protestant force, is clearly embarrassed by

the affair. But security chiefs, who ordered a minimum release of information about the raid, are apparently more relieved that the guns did not fall into the wrong hands permanently.

None of the arrested men is a member of the security forces, but the comparative ease with which the gang launched the raid has left the U.D.R.’s critics in, no doubt that they must have had inside help. The mainly-Catholic S.D.L.P. political party has demanded a full inquiry.