THE Special Criminal Court heard yesterday how armed detectives uncovered an arms haul after they stopped a car and van in north Co Dublin in April 1995.
The court was told the arrests and arms seizure followed Garda surveillance after gardai received confidential information about arms being moved.
Four men were arrested after armed Special Branch detectives stopped a car and a van about a mile from Balbriggan.
Yesterday Mr Sean Branniff (41), of Juniper Court, Twinbrook, Belfast, and Anthony Patrick Gorman (25), of Dalton Road, Armagh City, denied having two FN FAL automatic rifles, two Kalashnikov rifles, two US M3 sub machine guns and 20 Browning pistols and 2,500 rounds of ammunition at Blackhall, Balbriggan, Co Dublin, with intent to endanger life on April 4th last year.
Mr Gorman pleaded guilty to having the guns and ammunition in suspicious circumstances, but Mr Branniff pleaded not guilty.
Mr Joseph Matthews SC, prosecuting, said Garda surveillance took place at the Regency Hotel on the Swords Road, Dublin, on April 4th.
At 2.45 p.m. Det Insp Denis Roche and Det Garda Denis Murphy saw a white Ford Sierra car with four men, including the two accused, in the car park. Mr Gorman was seen getting out of the car and into a red Ford Transit van which he drove out of the hotel car park. The Sierra followed, and both vehicles turned towards Swords.
Some 400 yards from the roundabout at Dublin Airport, the vehicles stopped in traffic and Mr Branniff got out carrying a green hold all and got into the van.
Four other unmarked Special Branch cars joined the operation. Mr Matthews said the surveillance took place because gardai had received confidential information that arms were being moved.
About a mile south of Balbriggan, the two vehicles stopped on the road's hard shoulder and the four men got out of the car and van. They went to the sliding door of the van and were seen removing furniture. Two of the men were seen placing a red hold all in the boot of the car.
When detectives identified themselves as armed gardai, the four men ran. Two jumped into a ditch and ran across a field, one ran around the van and another got into the Sierra car.
Gardai found ammunition in the red hold all and rifles and sub machine guns in the green hold all Mr Branniff had put at the side of the van before running away.
Gardai discovered three secret compartments in the van which contained 20 Browning semiautomatic pistols. They also found £3,500 sterling.
Mr Matthews said the prosecution believed "a military operation" had been mounted to move arms. Two walkie talkies were found, one in the car and one on Gorman.
Det Sgt Gerard McCarrick said he had confidential information there was to be an arms move. He was on duty in an unmarked Garda car and in radio contact with the detectives following the car and van.
He gave evidence of arresting Mr Branniff, handcuffed him and handed him over to gardai at 3.25 p.m.
The trial continues today.