Northern Ireland police investigating ‘republican plot to blow up lorry crossing Irish Sea on Brexit day’

Bomb found on haulage truck could have caused 'catastrophic loss of life'

Police received a report of a bomb on a lorry at Belfast docks (PA Archive/PA Images)

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

Detectives said an explosive device had been “deliberately and recklessly” attached to a haulage company’s lorry “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”.

They linked the failed terror plot to the discovery of a bomb in an industrial estate in the town of Lurgan, County Armargh, on Tuesday.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) first received a report of an explosive device in a lorry in Belfast docks on 31 January, the day the UK left the EU. The report indicated the lorry was due to travel by ferry to Scotland.

Northern Irish and Scottish police, the ferry company, and Belfast Harbour authorities launched a search for the device but nothing was found and the ship sailed safely to its destination.

On Monday, PSNI received a further report that the device was on a lorry belonging to a named haulage company. Police and the firm searched about 400 vehicles over the next 24 hours before locating the bomb on a truck in Silverwood industrial estate in Lurgan.

The device was immobilised by a bomb safety expert.

Detective Superintendent Sean Wright, from the PSNI’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 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.”

Police appealed for anyone “who may have noticed any unusual activity” around the Silverwood industrial estate between 4pm and 10pm on 31 January to come forward.

“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,” added Mr Wright.

PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne gave members of his oversight body, the Northern Ireland Policing Board, an outline brief on the investigation at their monthly meeting in Belfast on Thursday afternoon.

Afterwards, Sinn Fein’s policing spokesman Gerry Kelly said the bomb could have caused “catastrophic loss of life”.

“The fact is this could have ended up on a ferry,” he said. “If it had exploded, you are talking about catastrophic loss of life, and whoever planted this bomb needs to know that.”

Northern Irish police have previously warned Brexit could lead to an “upsurge” in dissident republican violence, as well as support for paramilitary groups that reject the Good Friday Agreement and want a united Ireland.

“Anything that brings the border issue into question in Northern Ireland brings tension, said Assistant Chief Constable Barbara Gray, who leads PSNI’s counter-terrorism response unit, in August.

Asked if he believed the lorry attack had been planned to coincide with Brexit, Mr Kelly added: “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.”

Ulster Unionist policing spokesman Doug Beattie called on the UK government to "treat it as the national security threat which it is".

He said: "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.

"Had this been on a ferry from Dover to Calais, the UK government would be mobilising every asset possible to track down the perpetrators."

Last year the New IRA claimed the UK’s departure from the EU was helping it recruit young supporters by putting “the border on the agenda again”.

Dissident republican violence increased in 2019, with multiple attacks on police officers and the murder of Lyra McKee in Derry in April. The New IRA admitted responsibility for killing the journalist, who it said had been shot by mistake by a gunman firing at police.