Man had Uzi in hotel room

A FEARED Limerick criminal who booked into a hotel carrying an Uzi submachine gun fitted with a silencer in his luggage was planning a feud gang killing, gardaí believe.

The man, aged 30, has known links to the McCarthy Dundon gang. It is believed he was using the hotel to cover his tracks before moving on his intended target elsewhere in the northside of the city.

Armed gardaí, let by Detective Inspector Jim Ryan and Det Insp Tom O’Connor, stormed a room in the Travelodge Hotel, at Coonagh Roundabout, Ennis Road.

Gardaí discovered the gun wrapped in a towel under sheets of bed linen. A silencer and magazines were also found.

The hotel was cordoned off as Garda forensic experts carried out further searches in the hotel and surrounding area. No ammunition was found, but gardaí suspect it may have been stashed elsewhere.

The Garda raid was carried out at 10.30pm on Wednesday night, after days of surveillance of known associates of the gang.

The man, who comes from Southill, is being held under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.

He has served a number of prison sentences, one for an armed robbery on a Castletroy supermarket, and was only recently released from prison.

The gun has been sent to the Garda ballistics section in Dublin for examination to see if it was used in any other shootings.