Gardaí arrest gang of pickpockets stealing phones at Indiependence

Gardaí arrested a number of members of a pickpocketing gang who stole smartphones worth thousands of euro from festival-goers.

The gang struck over the weekend at the Indiependence music festival in Mitchelstown, Co Cork.

A member of the public spotted suspicious activity at the festival and reported it to security personnel, who in turn notified gardaí.

Plainclothes detectives and uniformed gardaí kept the gang members under surveillance and then moved in to arrest some of them.

According to garda sources, they recovered around 30 smartphones, some of which were worth up to €800. They also recovered a number of wallets which had been pickpocketed by the gang.

It is believed that there were seven members of the gang, one of whom was a woman. They ranged in age from 18 to 40, are Romanian nationals, and currently live in Dublin.

Some of them were also questioned in relation to the alleged theft of a laptop from a local hotel.

A file is now being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Gardaí believe they deliberately targeted the event because they could easily mingle with revellers and that the same gang has been responsible for similar thefts at other festivals around the country in recent weeks.

Gardaí reported that the three-day festival, which attracted thousands of music fans, was relatively trouble-free, but there were around 100 drug detections.