Judge’s disgust at museum heist plot

It was an audacious multimillion-euro plan to plunder some of the last reserves of rhino horn and carved jade items that spanned the globe.

Members of the gang known as the Rathkeale Rovers raided museums and an auction house, seizing €22.5m in Chinese jade in one swoop alone.

Given the scarcity of the reserves, it is not surprising that yesterday the judge who sentenced seven of the 14 men behind the series of robberies expressed sadness that there was “no prospect of recovery” of many of the items.

It was a conspiracy, the judge said, that spanned England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Ireland, with references made in the trial to France, Hong Kong, the US, and Germany. This highly-organised Irish criminal network had been under surveillance for many years by law enforcement agencies in the US and Europe and had amassed incredible wealth from the banned trade. In Europe they have been behind over 60 documented thefts, valued at more than €40m.

Based around an extensive network of Traveller families, the Rathkeale Rovers have been a top targets of customs, wildlife, and organised crime agencies in Europe and the US. European agencies have hit members of the network with a total of €9m in tax demands. This was part of a massive operation, codenamed Oakleaf, which spread across more than 16 European countries in addition to the US.

Named after the town in Co Limerick, the Rathkeale Rovers were behind the theft of eight rhino horns, valued at €500,000, from the National History Museum warehouse in Swords, north Dublin, in April 2013.

Rhinos have been hunted to the brink of extinction and traffic in rhino products is regulated by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species . The rhino horns are mainly sold in China, where they are used for traditional medicine, as an aphrodisiac, and a decoration in luxury products. Rhino horns can sell for, on average, €60,000, but often fetch a lot more.

In 2013, the Criminal Assets Bureau led six searches in Limerick and Cork targeting members of the Rathkeale Rovers.

The searches of five homes and one office, located in the Rathkeale and Raheen areas of Limerick and Newmarket in north Cork, were conducted to establish if properties and other assets can be confiscated under Proceeds of Crime laws.

There have been more than 50 arrests across Europe under Operation Oakleaf since it began in November 2010. The operation was established by Europol, the EU police agency, at the request of gardaí. Europol has described the network as a “mobile organised crime group”, which has set up companies all over Europe to legitimise their illegal activities and has laundered their income through properties and luxury cars.

Gardaí said the Rathkeale Rovers are involved in extensive criminality, which also includes labour exploitation, counterfeiting fraud, tarmac scams, and tobacco smuggling.

Yesterday, Judge Murray Creed made clear his disgust at the scam that “involved significant cultural loss of museum-quality artefacts and items from international collections”.