Gardaí catch Romanian gang over copper thefts

Garda specialist units nabbed a Romanian organised gang in the early hours of yesterday morning in relation to the “industrial theft” of copper wiring in the Midlands.

The booming illegal trade has seen the theft of 142 kilometres of power lines so far this year – which has cost the ESB €4.6 million to replace.

“This is costing the ESB an absolute fortune,” said detective chief superintendent Michael O’Sullivan of the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau.

Bureau units from Dublin were dispatched overnight after reports that a specific gang they were targeting was cutting wiring over bogland in Co Offaly.

The bureau intercepted a van in the Rathangan area of Co Kildare at around 4.40am and arrested five men, all aged in their 20s and 30s.

Two were subsequently released without charge pending further investigation, while three are due to appear in court this morning.

An amount of copper wiring was seized during the operation.

This particular outfit does not – unlike some other gangs active in the trade – use machinery such as cherry pickers to take down electrical wiring. Instead, gang members use long handheld cutters and are very proficient at climbing electrical poles.

They then remove the wiring in long sections and cut them up for transport in vans.

Chief O’Sullivan said that for the five men arrested there could be another five in the gang, who would be involved in the logistics, transport, sale and export of the wiring.

Gardaí say that this particular gang is considered “sophisticated” and “highly mobile” and is suspected of being active in Clare, Galway and Tipperary in recent months.