A Special Branch detective has denied that anti-terrorist detectives who rammed a car carrying explosive substances were engaged in a "Keystone Cops" operation.
Det Garda Fergal Dardis, of the Special Detective Unit, told the Special Criminal Court yesterday that he was one of a team of detectives who travelled from Dublin to Dundalk on June 9th, 2001, to monitor the activities of dissident republicans.
Two carloads of armed gardaí were positioned in the railway station at Dundalk watching passengers getting off the Dublin train at 10.35 a.m.
Det Garda Dardis said that he saw two men who were known to the gardaí, one of whom was carrying a Nike sports bag, walking directly to a parked silver Toyota car and getting into it.
As the car was being driven off towards Dundalk, the gardaí turned on the sirens and flashed it to stop, but the driver accelerated.
Det Garda Dardis identified the driver of the car as Mr Darren O'Donogh (23), Glenmore Park, Muirhevnamore, Dundalk, Co Louth. He has pleaded not guilty to the unlawful possession of an explosive substance - one improvised timing power unit - at McEntee Avenue, in the townland of Demesne, Dundalk, on June 9th, 2001.
Det Garda Dardis told the court that he forced the car to stop by striking it from the rear and pinning it against the footpath. Mr O'Donogh and the other two men, who were not before the court, were arrested.
When gardaí opened the sports bag, they found a time and power unit hidden inside. Two balaclavas and cotton-type gloves were also found in the car.
Cross-examined by Mr Martin Giblin SC, defending, Det Garda Dardis said he made the decision to stop the car forcibly "as quickly as possible" before it entered Dundalk, as the gardaí believed that explosives were being transported in the car.
Mr Giblin suggested that allowing "a potential bomb out on to the public highway" appeared to be a "Keystone Cops operation" and further suggested that the car could have been prevented from leaving the railway station.
The detective said that the car was stopped in a "controlled manoeuvre" and denied that the operation was ill-thought-out. When Mr O'Donogh refused to get out of the car, Det Garda Dardis drew his gun and put his boot through the driver's window.
He and a colleague pulled him from the car and placed him on the ground.
The trial continues today.