Gang used rural Airbnb as hub to carry out 20 burglaries in five days

One of Ireland’s most prolific burglary gangs used an Airbnb to carry out a crimewave in which up to 20 homes were broken into in the space of five days. The Tallaght-based crime gang rented the property near Knock, Co Mayo, earlier this month to carry out the burglary spree across three counties. The innocent host of the property was completely unaware that some of the country’s most notorious 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 they used it as a base to target unoccupied houses in counties Roscommon, Galway and Mayo. The gang are suspected of carrying out around 20 break-ins at night time in houses which were not occupied at the time, a source told the Irish Independent. 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 goods with a combined value of many thousands of euro. It is understood that the highly organised gang used three different cars during their crime spree. Gardai have established that they wore camouflage clothing and wellington boots and even walked through wet fields before breaking into houses which were mostly located in very rural areas. Officers in the west of Ireland quickly located the Airbnb which was 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 massive investigation.