Teenagers in secondary school, and some in third level, were paid thousands of euro to allow their bank accounts be used by a fraud gang recruiting in Co Kerry, only to be caught and convicted. While some of the younger offenders were dealt with under the Garda’s junior liaison scheme, others were convicted under anti-terrorism and money-laundering legislation.
The young people were working as so-called mules to facilitate money-laundering by a fraud gang, with controlling members based in Ireland and abroad. Each student allowed between €2,000 and €65,000 to pass through their accounts, for payments of between 10 and 15 per cent of the core sums.
News of the scale of the operation in Kerry first emerged in The Irish Times two years ago when it was revealed about 50 young people had been recruited by one of their peers in the community. They surrendered their bank account details, and logins, so money from online frauds could be moved and laundered through the accounts.
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At the time, gardaí were shocked at the scale of the recruitment, especially in Co Kerry, where there has been no major history of domestic or international organised crime. However, it appears a young man based in the region proved very adept at recruiting the young people, mainly through personal relationships with them or via intermediaries.
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The Kerryman newspaper on Tuesday reported the total amount that passed through the accounts of the young suspects in Co Kerry reached €1.3 million. While that sum is not large on a national scale, it is a new departure for an organised crime network in the county.
The bank accounts used were with mainstream banks and other institutions allowing for accounts to be opened online, including Revolut, N26 and TransferWise. Some of the mules, aged 16-20 years, allowed more than one of their accounts to be used.
Det Sgt Ernie Henderson, from the Divisional Crime Team in Kerry, said the money that passed through the accounts had been stolen in scams involving bogus texts and emails – known as vishing and smishing – to unsuspecting people and companies. This tricked them into sending money to the accounts controlled by the gang. In other cases, the scammers extracted victims’ bank account details to steal their money, by transferring it into the young people’s accounts they controlled.
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Det Sgt Henderson confirmed some of the young people were prosecuted under the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Act 2010, with more than 30 Kerry-based mules already dealt with. He added this would disbar them from many opportunities, including securing visas for travel and work abroad and many other job opportunities.
Det Sgt Henderson said some of the senior personnel, known as “herders”, in the gang were using Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and other platforms “recruiting people to make easy money” by allowing their accounts to be used.
“In this particular operation, it was a person that was known to [the young people in Kerry] and living in the community here,” he said of the man recruiting the students in the Tralee area. “That matter is still currently under investigation for him.”
Other, more senior, figures in the gang were also being pursued and legislation aimed at combating organised crime gangs would be used against them. “For a county such as Kerry, that’s kind of groundbreaking. We don’t have a lot of crime gang investigations based in the county,” Det Sgt Henderson said.
He urged young people not to succumb to the temptation of easy money or peer pressure to become involved. If they were pressured into surrendering their account details or logins, they should immediately change their passwords.
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