Gardaí hold suspected killer in Europe-wide operation to crackdown on crime

Garda participation in a Europe-wide operation targeting organised crime resulted in the arrest of a Lithuanian man in west Dublin on foot of a European arrest warrant yesterday.

“Operation Trivium 5” was mounted by officers from 12 jurisdictions across Europe on behalf of TISPOL, the network of European traffic police forces. The operation was targeting the use of road networks by criminals, as well as human trafficking, property crime, drugs trafficking and other crimes such as shoplifting, fraud and metal theft.

Here the operation, which continues today, saw gardaí mount checkpoints and patrols across the country as well as launching a series of covert operations targeting foreign and indigenous criminals based on intelligence built up at local and national level. They particularly wanted to target criminals using the road network to attack local communities.

By 7.30pm, there were 153 incidents recorded by gardaí. Officers had made 12 arrests, among them that of the murder accused. Other crimes detected included drink driving, drug possession, driving while disqualified and firearms offences. By that point there had also been 26 seizures of vehicles from criminals.

Gardaí tweeted images and updates about the operation. In one case, alongside a picture of the offending articles, gardaí tweeted “male in custody in Blanch, pepper spray (classed as firearm) & weapon seized”.

In another officers wrote: “Disqualified driver drove to his court appearance this morning! In custody & car detained”. They also issued a number of tweets from the operation in Dublin Port.

Chief superintendent Aidan Reid of the Garda National Traffic Bureau, who is currently president of TISPOL, said “98% of what is stolen moves along the road network.” As its name suggests, Operation Trivium 5 is the latest in a series of such operations carried out across Europe since 2013. Across the continent, Trivium 4 resulted in 897 arrests, 1298 vehicles stopped as a result of automatic number plate recognition activation, 1,801 intelligence submissions and 8,455 other enforcement actions.

Ruth Purdie, TISPOL general secretary, said: “Many European member states have been affected by high levels of crimes committed by members of mobile networks. Trivium 5 builds on previous operations to use real-time intelligence combined with leading-edge enforcement technology to identify and dismantle sophisticated mobile criminal groups responsible for so many crimes.

“In particular, we will be seeking networks with operational networks across borders, as these represent serious harm to some of the most vulnerable people in society, as well as to the communities and businesses they target.”