Warrants issued over 'skimming' plan

European arrest warrants have been issued for two people in Ireland as part of an investigation into ATM skimming transactions of €6.5 million.

Europol today released details of the operation which took place in five EU countries over three days this week. It targeted a group responsible for payments on some 15,000 cards and some 35,000 fraudulent transactions.

Gardaí said two of the suspects are believed to reside in Ireland. They coordinated searches but failed to find the two people. They are now trying to establish if the suspects are still in Ireland.

There were 24 arrests made in the other countries involved with eight arrest in Italy, two in the Netherlands, two in Belgium and 12 in Romania.

Europol said the operation had dealt a “massive blow” to a “large international skimming network”.