GARDAÍ HAVE found 13 firearms that were among 30 guns stolen during a raid on the home of an arms dealer in Co Tipperary last month. The weapons were found in a house in Navan, Co Meath.
The firearms find was made after gardaí searched a house in the Canterbrook estate in Navan. Three of the guns were found in bags in the house, while the other 10 were hidden in a garden shed.
The haul included 12 shotguns and one high-powered rifle. Two men in their 20s were arrested under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act. The men were questioned at Navan Garda station.
The house in which the guns were seized is a rented property. One of the men arrested was released without charge after he satisfied gardaí he was not linked in any way to the drugs or guns.
Gardaí seized a number of mobile phones when the guns were found, and further searches at the weekend yielded another phone.
The records of those phones have been checked and suggest a number of men were at the same location in Nenagh, Co Tipperary, last week. Gardaí believe the firearms found in Navan were exchanged at that meeting.
Detectives have questioned the suspect about the meeting in the hope the rest of the guns stolen in Carrick-on-Suir can be found. Gardaí believe at least one of the people who facilitated the Nenagh meeting did so via mobile phone from prison.
Gardaí also found cannabis resin with an estimated street value of around €80,000 in the Navan house. A small quantity of cocaine was also seized, as was a quantity of unidentified powder which gardaí believe is cocaine valued at around €20,000.
The man in custody last night has been living in Co Meath for a number of years but is originally from Co Tipperary, where the firearms were stolen last month.
On that occasion the home of firearms dealer Tonnie Keevan was broken into on the Cregg estate just outside Carrick-on-Suir. An armed and masked gang tied up Mr Keevan and his wife, daughter and an elderly lodger before gaining access to the gun store room and taking 30 firearms and the family’s car.
Gardaí are unsure if the man being held in Navan was directly involved in the robbery on January 9th.
In the separate operation, gardaí from Navan arrested a man in his late 20s after a cannabis-producing facility was found at a house near Athboy, Co Meath. Around €35,000 worth of cannabis plants and dried herb were found at the premises.
The facility was a start-up operation with a large number of seeds planted in pots linked to a heating and feed system. The man arrested is from Trim, Co Meath.
