Criminal Case Throws Light on Armed Garda Checkpoints

Gardai with back up from  colleagues in the armed Regional Support Unit are cracking down on roving criminal gangs hitting rural areas.  ©Photograph: John Reidy
Gardai with back up from colleagues in the armed Regional Support Unit are cracking down on roving criminal gangs hitting rural areas. ©Photograph: John Reidy

Gangs of roving, eastern European criminals have been targeting business premises in the Munster area in recent years.

In more recent times they’ve concentrated on pharmacies in a search for prescription drugs – which they then forced unfortunate addicts to sell on for them.

Nowadays, high quality clothes, jewelry and accessories are being targeted and then exported to places like Lithuania.

Concentrated Campaign

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned here that a concentrated campaign of road checkpoints were being mounted by An Gárda Síochana.

I mentioned it because I got phone calls from people that morning wondering what armed Gardai were doing in places like Ballymacelligott.

It was with exactly these roving criminals in mind that the campaign hit the roads of the county and beyond – and is set to continue in a bid to crack down on this new wave of mobile crime.

Landmark Criminal Case

In a landmark criminal case in Limerick this week the court heard the burglaries involved the theft of €150,000 of women’s clothing and Chanel beauty products from boutiques and pharmacies across the region.

The case came about as a result of an interception by members of the armed Regional Support Unit of a car traveling near Shanagolden, Co Limerick on June 29, 2016.

Crime and Danger

The latest wave of checkpoints is a follow-up to that successful capture and exposure of the dark subculture of crime and danger prevalent in our country today.

The Irish Independent reported yesterday that the court heard how the gang acted with ‘military precision’ and that the organiser was paid up to €3,000 for each successful hit.

See the full report in The Irish Independent with a click on the link here:

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/highly-sophisticated-eastern-european-thieves-making-a-fortune-in-burglaries-targeting-rural-ireland-35605436.html

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