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Gardaí arrested a man in connection with the seizure of a container of 116 bicycles in Dublin last year.
A man in his 40s was detained during a follow-up search operation in Cavan on Saturday morning as part of the investigation into the discovery of bicycles in a container stored in allotments in Newcastle, Dublin, on December 28, 2019. .
The container was examined as part of ongoing investigations by Pearse Street gardaí into the theft of bicycles in Dublin city center.
The combined value of the stolen bikes, many of which were high-specification models, found in the container was estimated to be around 250,000 euros.
At 6.30am on Saturday morning, a gardaí attached to the Street Crimes Unit and the District Detective Unit on Pearse Street conducted a planned search of a residence in Drumgola Wood on the outskirts of the town of Cavan.
During the search, gardaí seized 7,000 euros in cash, as well as a large amount of financial documentation and memory cards with photographs of alleged stolen property, including bicycles.
After examining the documents, Gardaí arranged for € 122,500 to be frozen in various bank accounts, while another € 6,000 was discovered in a house tracking search.
The suspect was arrested at the scene and is currently being held at Pearse Street Garda Station under section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984.
A Garda spokesman said investigations were continuing.
Gardaí believes that a large number of bicycles stolen in Dublin each year are part of an organized criminal ring.
An average of 14 bicycles were stolen in the Republic each day last year according to official crime figures, although cycling activists believe the true number could be up to three times higher.
Figures based on the Garda Pulse system show that a total of 5,258 bicycles were reported theft during 2019, with 71% of all thefts recorded in Dublin.
Last year’s figure represents a decrease of 2 for every number of bikes stolen in 2018 and is the lowest annual total in the past five years.
Bicycle theft peaked in 2017 when nearly 6,000 were stolen.
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