Criminal gang 'used Mayo Airbnb as hub to carry out 20 burglaries' - report
Members of one of Ireland’s leading burglary gangs used an Airbnb rental in Mayo as a base for a crime wave in which up to 20 homes were robbed in under five days.
That's according to a report today by Ken Foy in the Irish Independent.
The Dublin-based gang rented the property near Knock earlier this month to carry out the burglaries in three counties, the report stated.
It continued: "The innocent host of the property was unaware that some of the country’s most prolific organised burglary gang criminals were staying at the house.
"Investigations have revealed that up to eight gang members stayed in the property for less than a week and that they used it as a base to target unoccupied houses in counties Roscommon, Galway and Mayo."
A source told the Irish Independent: “They are suspected of carrying out around 20 break-ins at night time in houses which were not occupied at the time.
“Cash and jewellery were their main targets in these burglaries, and while there is not a stand-out figure in terms of what was stolen, the gang got away with a combined value of many thousands of euro.”
The report said it is understood the highly organised gang used three different cars during their crime spree.
"Gardaí have established that they wore camouflage clothing and wellington boots and even walked through wet fields before breaking into houses that were mostly in isolated rural areas.
"Officers in the west of Ireland quickly located the Airbnb being used as a hub by the criminals and set up a special arrest operation.
"However, the gang never returned to the property and no arrests have yet been made in the major investigation.
"A Tallaght-based organised crime gang has been identified and extra dedicated anti-burglary garda patrols have been set up in the area after the break-ins earlier this month," the report outlined.
The source further told the newspaper: “This is a very forensically aware organised crime gang who have traditionally used the motorway network to carry out burglaries in rural locations."