AN IRISH organised crime gang has become one of the most significant players in the illegal global trade in rhino horns.
It has developed a sophisticated network of agents and money-laundering vehicles to sell stolen horns and conceal the proceeds of those sales, which can reach up to €200,000 per horn.
“These are a very significant gang and are very much now on the radar of police forces internationally,” said one source familiar with the Irish syndicate.
Staff at a number of locations in Ireland where rhino horns, including very old antique examples, can be found have been warned to increase security.
One such site is the Natural History Museum in Dublin.
So concerned is the international law enforcement community over the Irish gang’s activities that the European police agency Europol has issued a warning to forces around the world.
Security sources in Ireland and Europe told The Irish Times the gang has been carrying out many crimes overseas but has been using Ireland to buy assets, primarily property. The Criminal Assets Bureau has undertaken a major investigation into the gang’s assets in the mid-west, focusing on members of the gang who live Limerick city and Rathkeale.
The gang are members of a large Traveller family. Based in Ireland, they have been active across the UK and Europe and have moved some members into the US and Australia.
In recent months the Irish gang has emerged as the chief suspects in museum robberies in Italy, Germany and the UK in which rhino horns on display were stolen from facilities with little or no security measures. In other robberies abroad, going back to last year, the gang has used violence.
Some of these have involved gathering information on elderly antique dealers with rhino horns in stock and putting the dealers under surveillance.
Some victims have been badly assaulted and threatened with extreme violence. Sources believe the horns have been primarily sold into the Chinese medicines market. However, there is also an international underground collectors’ market, and gardaí believe some of the horns stolen by the gang may have been sold into that arena.
Gardaí believe the gang has been using a network of agents to offload the stolen horns. Rhinos are an endangered species and dealing in their horns is illegal.
The Irish gang has also been involved in more conventional crime in Europe, Australia and North and South America, including drugs trafficking, money-laundering and the distribution of high-value counterfeit products including power tools and generators, according to security sources.
This has been lucrative and beneficial in concealing the gang’s role in the rhino horn trade.
There have been no known robberies of rhino horns in the Republic. However, Revenue’s customs officers in January 2010 intercepted five horns being smuggled through Shannon airport.