Officers raided home over suspicious import tip-off

SUSPICIOUS Customs officers alerted gardai to a hoard of child sex dolls.

Details have emerged about the discovery of the imports by officers involved in Operation Ketch.

They found the sickening props as they raided 31 properties in 15 counties across Ireland.

A source said yesterday: “Customs were the first people to spot what was going on. They detected a doll in their normal profiling activities.

“They seized that package on the basis it was a suspicious import. That led gardai to an address outside of Dublin where they found multiple dolls.

“Each appeared to be from the East, almost certainly Japanese. The man who had them has been interviewed.

“Worryingly, he has never been on the Garda radar and the best description for him is a strange loner.”

The operation was led by detectives from Special Crime Operations Online Child Exploitation Unit and the Garda National Protection Services Bureau.

All evidence has now been collated and seized hard drives and other devices will be examined by specialists to build cases against at least 30 people.

The raids were a follow-up to the first phase of Operation Ketch in which 38 premises were searched and hundreds of thousands of images seized.

That led to the identification of two juvenile suspects. They have been referred to specialist gardai.

Sources have said they are confident a file will be completed in regard to the sex dolls offence shortly.

One said: “Normally you would say images and video are child pornographic material but a case will be built against this man for possession of these dolls.

“Gardai are confident they will get a charge.

“In total more than six people have made admissions in cautioned interviews with officers. No one has been arrested as yet.”