PSNI DETECTIVES investigating the suspected dissident republican murder of Constable Ronan Kerr were last night questioning a man about what is described as one of the “most significant” seizures of arms in recent years.
As the funeral of Constable Kerr was concluding in Beragh, Co Tyrone, yesterday afternoon PSNI detectives supported by Strathclyde police arrested a 26-year-old man in Dumbartonshire in Scotland in connection with the weapons discovery in Coalisland, Co Tyrone.
The suspect was flown back to Northern Ireland yesterday evening and last night detectives were questioning him in Antrim police station about the find of rifles, detonators and explosives which possibly includes the high explosive Semtex.
PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Drew Harris said the discovery on Tuesday night “will form lines of inquiry into Ronan’s murder and into terrorist activity generally”.
The discovery was made in a garage unit on the Mountjoy Road in Coalisland. “Inside the unit police officers discovered a number of stolen vehicles and, inside those vehicles, a significant amount of arms and munitions,” said Mr Harris.
The find, he added, included four Kalashnikov-type rifles, ammunition, timer power units, detonators, incendiary bombs, components for rocket launchers and other explosive devices, and a quantity of explosives, “possibly Semtex”. The find was “one of the most significant in recent years,” said Mr Harris.
Detectives and police forensic experts are now trying to establish if the discovery is directly linked to the murder of Constable Kerr, who died when a bomb exploded under his car in Omagh on Saturday afternoon. Police searches were continuing in Coalisland yesterday.
Mr Harris said the weapons were “fast-tracked” for forensic examination. He again appealed for public help in tracking the killers. “Expressions of sympathy and condemnation are welcome but we need more. We need information,” he said.
More than 1,000 mourners including Taoiseach Enda Kenny, First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness crowded into the local Catholic church in Beragh yesterday for the funeral Mass.
Catholic primate Cardinal Seán Brady was applauded for his remarks at the conclusion of the Mass. He described the murder as an “evil deed” and said the dissidents must “in God’s name stop, and stop now”.
Mr Kenny told The Irish Timesthat Ireland was united in its opposition to the dissidents. "I have been at many funerals over the years but this one, symbolically, was as powerful as you could get. Every strata of Irish society across this island was represented here today," he said.
Writing in today's Irish Times, the Minister for Justice Alan Shatter says the Government will "stop at nothing, within the rule of law, to defeat these groups".