Gardaí believe three people arrested after a pursuit on the M50 at the weekend were involved in a crime spree in Dublin’s northern suburbs before being caught.
The three suspects, a juvenile in his mid teens and two men in their early 20s, were in a stolen car when it stopped on the M50 near Clondalkin after initially refusing to engage with gardaí near Dublin Airport.
The trio tried to flee from the vehicle on foot and discarded items of clothing in an effort to avoid being identified from CCTV footage of some of their alleged crimes in recent days.
However, they were arrested after abandoning the car, which had hit other vehicles before being halted by gardaí.
The two men and the teenager were in a Volkswagen Golf that had been stolen in Santry in recent days.
In the early hours of Sunday, a family was threatened and their home in Malahide was damaged by three masked males.
Before that incident, one of the gang members got into a car parked in the driveway, in an apparent attempt to take the vehicle. The homeowner heard the man outside and chased him away.
However, less than a minute later, the three males appeared, armed with golf clubs, and smashed up the car and damaged the outside of the house, including breaking windows. One of them shouted into the property, demanding the car keys, before fleeing. The couple living in the house do not appear to have been injured during the incident.
Gardaí believe members of the same group were in a Volkswagen Golf first spotted by patrolling gardaí on the Naul Road near Dublin Airport, just off the northern end of the M50, on Sunday evening.
The gardaí were in the area as part of ongoing investigations into “a series of burglaries and incidents of criminal damage”.
The men in the car failed to stop at the scene and a pursuit began, involving local and divisional Garda units from across Dublin, as well as the Armed Support Unit and Garda helicopter.
“The vehicle came to a stop on the M50 near Clondalkin, where three males, two in their 20s and one juvenile in his mid-teens, were subsequently arrested,” the Garda said in a statement.
“All three are currently detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984 at Garda stations in north Dublin.
“The vehicle, a VW Golf which had been reported stolen during a recent burglary in the Santry area, has been recovered and brought for technical examination. No injuries were reported during this incident.”
An examination of the vehicle yielded a number of golf clubs and other items that could be used as weapons, including hammers.
Gardaí believe the gang had been active for some time over the weekend in the Malahide area, prowling around while masked, looking for opportunities to steal vehicles or take items of value from cars.