Assassination bid during Euros game

Gardaí assured the safety of innocent bystanders when “potential assassins” aligned with the Kinahan crime cartel were arrested en route to carrying out their hit during the Ireland-Belgium Euro 2016 game on Saturday.

Sources said that up to eight possible gun attacks have been thwarted in the Kinahan-Hutch feud.

The operation was led by the Garda Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau. The dramatic arrests of two men in separate cars, one carrying a loaded handgun, was conducted by the Emergency Response Unit shortly before 3pm in south-west Dublin.

“We suspect the two were on their way to shoot some unsuspecting guy,” said one garda source. “If they had gone into a pub with a loaded handgun, innocent people could have been caught up.

“This was a potential assassination and these are potential assassins. This is a very good capture and is the result of constant surveillance and good police work.”