{"id":257513,"date":"2026-01-22T06:59:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T06:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/257513\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T06:59:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T06:59:18","slug":"gardai-deport-25-convicted-sex-offenders-as-part-of-new-operation-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/257513\/","title":{"rendered":"Garda\u00ed deport 25 convicted sex offenders as part of new operation \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twenty-five sex offenders have been deported from the State since last year as part of an operation An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na<\/a> said was targeting \u201chighly dangerous non-Irish nationals\u201d.<\/p>\n

Operation Moonridge, led by the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB), began last year with a view to identifying and locating convicted sex offenders who do not have a right to reside in Ireland.<\/p>\n

Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan<\/a> issued a statement on Wednesday welcoming progress in the operation, the existence of which had not previously been publicly disclosed.<\/p>\n

Eleven EU nationals and 14 people from outside the EU have, to date, been deported under Operation Moonridge.<\/p>\n

It is understood that those deported include a number of people convicted of sexual offences in the State who remained after completing their sentences.<\/p>\n

This includes Ioan Remi Makula, a Romanian national, who was jailed for two years in 2022 for masturbating beside a female passenger on board a Ryanair<\/a> flight to Shannon Airport.<\/p>\n

He was one of four registered sex offenders deported to Romania last October as part of a larger group of people.<\/p>\n

While garda\u00ed have previously deported foreign national sex offenders from the State, Operation Moonridge represents a more organised approach that is supported by additional resources.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Callaghan said the continuing operation involved extensive information-sharing between GNIB, the Garda National Protective Services Bureau, the Garda Sex Offenders Management Intelligence Unit and units in the Department of Justice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0European court stance limits Ireland\u2019s ability to deport criminals, O\u2019Callaghan saysOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

All of those deported are subject to periods of exclusion from the State.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis work being undertaken by specialised units within An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na is critical for the protection of people and for building public confidence in Ireland\u2019s immigration system,\u201d the Minister said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am implementing a rules-based migration system which means if a person commits serious offences while in the State, that person will be caught and removed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The removals were carried out under a deportation order or an EU removal order in the case of EU citizens.<\/p>\n

In recent years, the Garda and Department of Justice have stepped up efforts to deport people without a right to remain in the State, with those convicted of serious offences being prioritised.<\/p>\n

This includes the chartering of dedicated deportation flights. Since last year, six such flights have taken place, resulting in the deportation of 205 people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Twenty-five sex offenders have been deported from the State since last year as part of an operation An…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[45,9691,42,18573,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-257513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-department-of-justice","tag-headlines","tag-jim-ocallaghan","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}