Men caught making pipe bombs

Two Dublin men who were caught red handed making pipe bombs for the INLA were each sentenced to eight years imprisonment by the Special Criminal Court today.

Jonathan Keogh (aged 23), of Upper Sean Mac Dermott Street and Garret Pigott (aged 26) of Philipsburgh Terrace, Dublin 3 pleaded guilty to the unlawful possession of explosive substances, including four pieces of steel piping, eight metal caps, bulbs, batteries, wiring, travel alarm clocks, propellant powder and 10cm-long nails at The Crescent, Park West, Clondalkin on September 9 last year.

Both men were sentenced to eight year's imprisonment but the court suspended the final two years of Piggot’s sentence after he gave an undertaking in the witness box to dissociate himself from subversives.

Detective Superintendent Diarmuid O’ Sullivan, of the Special Detective Unit, told the court that gardaí investigating the activities of the INLA searched an apartment at Park West and found the two men and others there.

Gardaí also found all the components for four pipe bombs, including travel alarm clocks used to initiate the bombs.

They also found nails which were usually taped to the outside of the pipe bomb and scatter when the bomb explodes hitting anyone in the vicinity.

"Every item needed was in the apartment and they were in the final stages of preparation," he said.

He said the pipe bombs were being built for the INLA for use in their dealings with drug dealers. The Det Supt said that the INLA has become "a money making racket" using kidnapping, extortion and the use of explosive devices to threaten drug dealers.

Sentencing the men, Mr Justice Paul Butler, presiding, said that the pipe bombs were in effect anti-personnel devices that could kill or maim.