‘Rathkeale Rovers’ plotted to steal Rhino horn worth €73m

Thirteen members of an organised crime gang are facing jail after plotting to steal rhino horn and Chinese artefacts worth up to £57m (€73m) in a series of museum raids.

A jury convicted four of the gang’s “generals” who helped to plan and oversee a string of offences, including break-ins at Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum and Durham’s Oriental Museum in 2012.

John “Kerry” O’Brien Jr, aged 26, Richard “Kerry” O’Brien, aged 31, Michael Hegarty, aged 43, and Daniel “Turkey” O’Brien, aged 45, were found guilty after a trial which could not be reported because of similar offences committed by travelling criminals dubbed the ‘Rathkeale Rovers’.