No powerline thefts since gang arrested
At yesterday’s launch of a Crimestoppers campaign to combat metal theft, assistant Garda commissioner Derek Byrne said five men were arrested on August 5 and three had since been charged.
He warned that some of the gang members from the west Balkans known to be involved in live cable theft were still at large. Gardaí had some of the “foot soldiers”, not the organisers.
One of the men had previously been detected in another country for a similar offence. “This is not just an Irish problem, it is Europe-wide,” Mr Byrne said.
This year there have been 48 live line thefts. Since 2012 there have been 685 such incidents, with around 140km of copper conductor has been stolen, costing €27m to repair and replace.
Mr Byrne said crime groups from the west Balkans were involved in live cable theft and there were indications that some were flying in to Ireland for short periods: “The people we have dealt with have identified themselves as Romanians but I think the more global picture is west Balkans.”
There has been a rise in metal theft generally since 2011 but Mr Byrne said there had been a lot of success over the years in tackling the indigenous crime groups involved. However, in recent months there had been an increase in the theft of high-voltage cables, with the thefts occurring predominantly in rural areas off the main roads.
He said gardaí had been working extremely closely with the ESB to monitor the grid and detect disruptions; It was this that had led to the arrest of the cable thieves this month.
Information from the public had also played an important role in the success gardaí had in arresting the gang members.
“By contacting Crime-stoppers with information, you can help the gardaí reduce this type of crime and its impact on communities,” he said.
Mr Byrne said while most metal dealers in Ireland were compliant and worked closely with gardaí, there were some rogue traders who continued to deal with the gangs.
The campaign is supported by ESB Networks and its head of distribution and customer services, Senan Colleran, said the criminals were risking their lives
To date, one person has died and three have been seriously injured while breaking into substations or cutting down wires. The network had also been left in a dangerous condition following cable thefts.
“We had a recent case of a farmer in Gort, Co Galway, who lost a full crop of barley because of the criminals,” Mr Colleran said.
Cable theft also disrupted electricity supply. This year, to date, around 27,000 customers have experienced power cuts as a result of the criminal activity.
Mr Colleran said new voltage detectors were being used to detect metal theft and there had been a number of cases where gardaí came upon gangs in the process of removing cable.
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