Man arrested in ATM skimming raid could be linked to crimes in Kildare

A man arrested when Gardaí raided an ATM skimming operation in Meath could be linked to crimes in Co Kildare.

The suspect (39) from Romania is being questioned along with his older associate (48) at Navan Garda Station.

The arrests came after a planned dawn raid at a house in the Slane Road in Navan.

Gardaí seized equipment for ATM skimming, including a fake ATM front, hard drives, receiving devices, soldering equipment, laptops, about 500 blank cards to be used for storing data copied at ATMs, satnavs, pinhole cameras, skimming devices and various skimming paraphernalia.

The Europe-wide investigation was led by the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau, which worked with police agency Europol and local gardaí from Navan.

The men are being detained under Section 50 of Criminal Justice Act, 2007.

Gardai said investigations and searches are ongoing.

Gardaí suspect that the men are part of a mob that carried out more than 550 ATM skimming crimes in Ireland last year alone, netting the gang almost €300,000.

The 39-year-old suspect, who was the main target of the Garda probe, has been linked by CCTV to at least 60 ATM skimming crimes last year in counties Kildare, Dublin, Wicklow and Meath.

His 48-year-old associate has previous convictions for similar crimes in Germany and France,  the Irish Independent reports.