PSNI and gardai will join forces to take on border crime gangs
THE PSNI has joined forces with its counterpart in the Republic to form a task force aimed at tackling burglaries carried out by organised crime gangs on both sides of the border
The move would involve a PSNI officer moving to a Garda station in Dublin, while a garda from Tallaght — where a major crime gang is based — would work in Northern Ireland for a number of months with the PSNI, a source told the Irish Independent.
It comes as the home of an elderly couple in Co Down was targeted, along with a house belonging to a 60-year-old woman in Lisburn, in separate incidents on Friday evening.
The husband and wife, both in their 70s, were assaulted by three men in their property at Elmfield Villas in Warrenpoint at around 8pm. The woman was thrown to the ground while one of the masked assailants grabbed her husband by the throat before the gang proceeded to search the property, fleeing with a sum of cash and a mobile phone.
They also stole three white gold rings and a leather wallet.
The PSNI described the attack, which was reported yesterday, as “horrific”, stressing the couple had endured a frightening ordeal at the hands of individuals who have “nothing to offer society”.
Police also condemned the separate attack carried out by three masked intruders on a property in Nettlehill Road, Lisburn, which left the 60-year-old
female occupant “badly shaken”.
At around 8.30pm, the victim answered a knock at the door to discover a gang wearing balaclavas.
The gang then forced their way into her home and the woman was held down on a settee by one of the assailants while the other two searched the house.
The gang then took a small sum of cash and a mobile phone, before fleeing in a white or silver-coloured car.
A PSNI spokesman said that the woman had not been physically injured during the incident, but she had been left “extremely shaken”.
Meanwhile, police are appealing for witnesses after the North Down home of a woman in her 80s was targeted by two men on Saturday evening.
The men entered the property in Church Avenue, Bangor at around 7.45pm and while one stayed with the victim downstairs, the other is believed to have searched the upstairs of the house. At this stage it is not believed that anything was stolen, according to police.
Last month, a spate of burglaries involving the elderly was reported in a single evening in Lurgan, Loughbrickland and Bessbrook.
At the time the PSNI said only two of the incidents were possibly linked, and they have not disclosed yet whether or not it is believed these latest incidents could be connected.
The PSNI is, however, linking up with the Garda in a bid to dismantle a Dublin-based organised Traveller crime gang which is believed to be behind 30 burglaries on both sides of the border in September alone.
Both organisations believe it would result in even more “enhanced co-operation” as they battle to dismantle the crime gang, which is closely associated with the notorious Dublin crime boss, ‘Fat’ Andy Connors, who was murdered in 2014.
During the year there has been an increased level of co-operation between gardai and the PSNI in tackling burglary gangs.
In January, in a joint operation, gardai and the PSNI raided the homes of a gang in south Dublin, suspected of a home invasion which left an OAP fighting for her life.