GARDAÍ ‘WON’T CHASE CARS OVER 200KPH’

Thieves in high-powered cars terrorise rural towns and taunt officers

SPECIALIST gardaí tracking burglary gangs have decided not to chase them at speeds of over 200kph, amid fears that they will put innocent lives at risk.

Although they have bought high-powered vehicles to catch up with roaming gangs, who’ve been terrorising rural households around the country, gardaí will not pursue them at speeds over 200kph, saying the risk to the public is too great.

Just last night, one gang, which had been on a burglary spree, opened fire on unarmed officers. Uniformed gardaí were chasing a car near Kildangan, Co. Kildare, just after 10pm when their car was shot at by the burglars.

A manhunt was under way last night.

And last weekend, a well-known Traveller gang, mainly based in Tallaght and Rathfarnham in south Dublin, carried out eight burglaries in Co. Cork. This gang have been linked to at least 35 burglaries – some aggravated – in the Cork area since October.

The gang are ‘extremely wellorganised and well-known’. They are one of eight main crime gangs that use the road networks to carry out crime sprees.

In one incident in recent weeks in the county, members of the gang slowed down their high-powered car, allowing gardaí to catch up, only to give officers ‘the finger’ and drive off again laughing. ‘They are taunting An Garda Síochána,’ explained a senior source.

Some of the newer vehicles gardaí have purchased under Operation Thor are capable of keeping up with the criminals’ high-powered cars, but officers no longer believe it is safe practice to do so. ‘People will die, innocent people, if gardaí give chase at some of these speeds. We cannot and will not put the public in danger in this manner,’ said a wellplaced source. ‘The situation with some of these burglary gangs is getting out of control. Far more resources are needed to take these gangs out of operation.’

The Mail previously revealed how the leaders of well-known burglary gangs are importing high-powered cars brought in through Northern Ireland and the UK. These cars – often over a decade old, with Audi and Volvos being preferred models – can reach speeds over 250kph.

‘They aren’t fancy-looking but they are extremely high-powered and take off like a rocket.

‘These criminals are making peoples’ lives miserable, with these relentless robberies, all over the country,’ said the security source.

‘What we need is a lot more gardaí out there, stopping these gangs at both ends and cutting them off in between as much as possible. At the moment, these burglary gangs are winning this war.’

Operation Thor was launched in November 2015 in response to an increase in burglary rates in some parts of the country.

Across Ireland in recent weeks, local organisations such as Rural Link have been highlighting how at risk some home-dwellers are, particularly the elderly, now that

‘The gangs are winning the war’

winter is underway.

Senior security sources conceded last night that ‘a new action plan is needed’ to try and tackle these dangerous gangs.

The Mail previously revealed that one of Ireland’s most ‘prolific’ burglars imported a high-powered car to try and evade gardaí. Sources say many others have since followed suit.

This young criminal, aged in his early 20s, leads a gang in the capital that carries out dozens of burglaries each month across the country. It is understood he is not believed to be directly linked to the recent spate of break-ins in Cork. However, he is linked to the criminal faction behind it.