“Travellers were arrested in dawn swoops
across the country yesterday on suspicion of stealing more than £20million of jade artefacts and rhino horns from museums. Police believe the items may have been stolen to order for Chinese collectors. Hundreds of officers from 26 forces arrested 17 men and two women in simultaneous raids. Detectives suspect they may be linked to the notorious Rathkeale Rovers gang that has burgled up to 100 museums across Europe since 2011.
The gang, which hails from an Irish traveller community in Limerick, steals artefacts for black-market dealers in the Far East. Yesterday’s arrests were in connection with six burglaries at museums and an auction house over four months last year. The travellers and their associates are suspected of stealing 18 Chinese jade artefacts worth up to £18million from the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge in April.
Rhino horns are ground down and used as medicine in the Far East. They have become so sought after that they are worth more to smugglers than drugs or diamonds.
Yesterday’s raids were on camps and houses in London, Sussex, Cambridgeshire, Essex, the West Midlands, Nottingham and Ulster. The operation was led by Cambridgeshire Police, who arrested four of the men at the Smithy Fen travellers’ camp in Cottenham.”
Source: Daily Mail
