Lurgan Arrests In Anti-Dissident Operation

After this week's news that Gardaí investigating the activities of dissident republicans arrested five men in the Monasterevin area of Co Kildare, three men in NI are now being questioned in connection with dissident republican violence.

The men were detained by the PSNI Serious Crime Branch during searches in Lurgan, Co Armagh, on Friday morning.

The searches were linked to dissident republican activity, a PSNI spokeswoman said.

This followed an operation in the Irish Republic that began on Wednesday and saw members from the Republic's Special Detective Unit, Emergency Response Unit supported by local Gardai swooped and detectives continuing to question several men arrested in connection with what they said was the discovery of a "bomb factory" on the Co Kildare farm on Wednesday.

Searches at the property in Quinsborough have since uncovered nine mortars and various components and are today continuing.

Detectives believe the dissident group Oglaigh na hEireann had been making tubes for mortar bombs at the property and said that timers and explosives could then have been installed later for use in NI.

The five men, aged in their 20s, 40s and 50s, were arrested and are being held at Tullamore, Naas and Newbridge garda stations under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act and can be detained for up to three days. One man has since been released.

The recently published Irish Policing Plan 2011 identified the links between organised crime gangs and subversive groups among key issues.

"National security and the reduction of crime and fear of crime are part of our core business," said the new Gardaí boss Martin Callinan at the launch of his new policing plan that made made much of tackling dissident republican activity as one of the Gardaí's top priorities.

(BMcC/GK)