Man held after drugs and bomb equipment seized

A MAN was being questioned by detectives yesterday after bomb-making equipment and drugs were discovered during an early morning raid.

Components to make four pipe bombs and €75,000 worth of heroin were seized at a house in Paul Street near Smithfield in the Dublin city centre.

A 20-year-old man was later arrested for drug trafficking offences and taken to Store Street Garda Station. He can be held for seven days.

A Defence Forces spokesman said items were identified as bomb-making materials that could potentially have been used to make explosive devices.

The suspect is said to be known to city centre gardaí and affiliated to a criminal gang whose members have been charged in relation to an armed robbery.

Fine Gael’s Paschal Donohoe said the seizure of the bomb-making equipment was extremely worrying.

“Not least because of the fact that this is the second bomb-related incident to have occurred in Dublin Central in the last number of months,” he said.

“Now to find that materials, which could facilitate the production of even a small number of bombs, have been discovered in the north inner city is a worrying development which will warrant further investigation.”

Also two armed men who tried to rob a post office yesterday morning were being questioned by detectives.

Staff and customers at Bayside post office were threatened by the raiders, who had a handgun and a knife, before they fled empty-handed.

A shot was fired during the attempted robbery, which happened at about 9.30am. The men, in their 20s, were arrested at Bayside Dart station and amotorbike and handgun were recovered nearby.

A Garda spokesman said no one was injured during the incident. Both men are detained under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act 1939.

Meanwhile, a new armed Regional Support Unit is to be set up in the midlands to tackle organised criminal gangs in the region.

Assistant Garda Commissioner Dermot Jennings said the new 24-person unit will cover Westmeath, Laois, Offaly, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow and provide high-level protection to rural and urban communities in the north Leinster area.