Three arrested in RIRA crackdown operation

THREE people were arrested yesterday after bomb-making equipment and a firearm were seized during nationwide special garda unit raids.

In an operation in the south and east coast, detectives raided a number of addresses in Cork, Limerick, Dublin and Louth targeting the Real IRA.

Gardaí said searches took place early yesterday morning and were not related to the kidnapping of a north Dublin couple and their children yesterday.

Three people were taken into custody and were still being questioned under section 30 of the Offences against The State Act last night.

Gardaí can question them for up to 48 hours and another 24, if a special application is made to the courts.

The raids in the four counties yesterday were part of the “ongoing garda operation against the dissident terrorist organisation RIRA”, gardaí said in a statement last night.

All three people arrested in the raids were male, and one was in his 40s.

Members of the garda’s Crime and Security section headed up the dissident republican searches.

The garda searches come as the crackdown on dissident republicans, opposed to the Belfast agreement, continues.

One of the most recent high-profile finds by gardaí occurred in 2003 when 10 men, with arms and ammunition, were arrested after a raid on a suspected Continuity IRA training camp in north Co Waterford.