Up to 50 suspects held in phone-theft swoops

Gardai have arrested almost 50 suspected pickpockets in connection with the theft of smartphones on city streets and in pubs and clubs.

Some of the suspects had arrived in the country days before they were arrested and were known to international police forces.

Officers made almost all of the arrests on the southside of Dublin city centre under a two-year-old operation aimed at combating the phone thieves. Codenamed Aughrim, it is being headed by Pearse Street gardai.

Those arrested included 27 Romanians, 16 Irish, and one each from Croatia, Lithuania and Brazil.

Gardai also stopped and searched 57 others they believed to be pickpockets but they were not charged with any criminal offence.

Apart from this country, they came from Kuwait, Algeria, Turkey, Lithuania, Poland, Libya, Bulgaria,Tunisia, Morocco, Brazil and Romania.

Source-Irish Independent