Gardaí probe ‘very bizarre’ kidnap case

Gardaí said the alleged kidnapping of a property developer was a “very bizarre” case and they were struggling to get their heads around it.

Some Garda sources said they believed Kevin Michael McGeever had gone through a “traumatic experience” and that it appeared it had been “imposed on him” by other people.

The Mayo businessman was picked up on a lonely border road in Co Leitrim in a barefoot and dishevelled state last Tuesday. He subsequently claimed he was abducted, held captive, and tortured for eight months in a shipping container.

There are reports that the gang demanded €10m from him and that they took €80,000 from an account belonging to him. It is understood the property developer has claimed the IRA and Russian Mafia kidnapped him.

It also appears he was given a new mobile phone by his captors on release.

Detectives are waiting until Mr McGeever’s condition in hospital improves sufficiently to allow them to question him.

One Garda source said they were treating it as an alleged kidnapping at the moment. Another Garda source said the circumstances were “very bizarre” and that he had never come across a case like it.

“I’ve never heard of a gang keeping someone captive for eight months,” he said.

He explained that such a gang would be exposing themselves to enormous risks, not least the possibility of being spotted coming and going to a container and leaving behind forensic evidence.