Three held as gardaí seize drugs, guns, and monkey

Gardaí recovered an arsenal of high-powered weapons, loaded magazines and an assortment of ammunition in what is thought to be their first success against an organised crime gang.

When officers searched a detached home, replete with marble floors and chandeliers, they discovered a small monkey, inside a cage.

One of two men arrested in yesterday’s operation in Finglas, west Dublin, is a close relative of the leaders of major trafficking outfit, with international connections, including the Kinahan crime cartel.

In an operation by local gardaí, assisted by the Armed Support Unit, up to 50 officers searched a house off the Ratoath Road at 8am.

In the search, they recovered a Makarov RAK SMG submachine gun, a Skorpion machine pistol, five loaded magazines, a Colt Magnum, around 200 rounds of loose ammunition and over 200 shotgun cartridges and a silencer.

More than 1kg of cocaine (estimated street value around €97,000) and €30,000 worth of cannabis herb were seized, and a hydraulic presser for the cocaine. The DSPCA was requested to care for the marmoset monkey, named George. Gardaí said that there were up to six dogs at the site and at least one horse.

Two men, aged in their 30s and 40s, were detained under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act. A woman in her 30s was arrested in relation to clothing, suspected to have been stolen, worth around €3,000.

Sources said the crew was a “high-level” gang supplying drugs in the area and that this was their “first time” they had hit them. They said the outfit is closely linked with a major drug trafficking outfit.

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan congratulated gardaí on the seizure of guns and ammunition which, he said, were “solely designed to threaten, injure and take life”.