GARDAÍ ARE to prepare a file for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) after last night releasing without charge four men arrested when gardaí stopped a car and recovered an illegal firearm and other weapons in Co Cork.
The handgun, two baseball bats and a number of balaclavas were discovered when uniformed gardaí stopped and searched a car on the main Cork-Dublin road at Cloonlough in Mitchelstown at about 8.30pm on Thursday.
All four occupants of the car, a 26-year-old man, two 20-year-olds and an 18-year-old, all from the general Tullamore area in Co Offaly, were arrested. The gun and baseball bats were sent for ballistic and forensic examination.
They were arrested under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act. Two of them were brought to Midleton Garda station, and the other two to Fermoy Garda station for questioning.
Gardaí in north Cork said that they are keeping an open mind as to what criminal activity the four were planning. They said that they were following a number of lines of inquiry in their investigation.
The Irish Times understands that one particular line of inquiry is focusing on links between criminals in the Tullamore area and a drug gang based in Ballincollig in Co Cork who have forged links with a well-known criminal family in Limerick. Detectives are investigating whether the four arrested men were on their way to Cork to administer a beating on behalf of the Ballincollig-based gang to someone who may owe them money for drugs.
All four men were released last night without charge at about 8pm, and gardaí will now prepare a file on the matter for the DPP, a Garda spokesman confirmed.