Four men were arrested in Dublin on Saturday morning for allegedly conspiring to commit a murder as part of the Kinahan-Hutch feud.
Three firearms, a sub-machine gun, a semi-automatic pistol and a revolver were seized when gardaí stopped a van on Gardiner Street in Dublin 1 at about 8am.
One of those arrested is in his 20s and two are in their 30s, gardaí said. The arrests were made in an area close to where a number of murders committed as part of the feud have taken place.
A senior garda said the move had “resulted in the potential saving of human life and the arrest of those, who allegedly, while fully armed, were determined to murder”.
A fourth man was arrested a short time later during a follow-up operation.
The man, who is in his 40s, is being detained under Section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act, 2007.
A number of properties in the north inner city, west Dublin and south Dublin were searched by gardaí in follow-up operations, during which two additional firearms were recovered, along with a silencer and a quantity of ammunition.
Feud deaths
At least 14 people have been killed in the dispute, the vast majority of them from the Hutch side, since it began in September 2015 following the murder of Gary Hutch in Spain. He had previously tried to shoot dead a member of the Kinahan family.
The most recent victim was Derek Coakley-Hutch, who was killed in January as he sat in a car in a halting site beside Cloverhill Prison in west Dublin.
Speaking following the arrests, Assistant Garda Commissioner John O’Driscoll, who is responsible for special crime operations, said: “We stated on numerous occasions that our efforts at tackling organised crime, particularly where it gives rise to threat to life, is unrelenting.
“Those within the world of organised crime who display a total disregard for human life remain within our focus and we are determined to cause them to be arrested, charged, and where the courts determine there is sufficient evidence, convicted and incarcerated within our prisons.”
He said the operation by gardaí, which was based on intelligence gathered and international co-operation, had “yet again resulted in the arrests of suspects and the associated seizure of firearms”.