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The port of DUBLIN was closed for several hours yesterday morning due to a major security alert after a woman tried to bring a decommissioned Soviet mortar launcher into the country.
The Army Bomb Squad and the anti-terrorist gardaí were called to the scene around 1 a.m. after officers stopped a pickup truck registered in Eastern Europe.
The vehicle was the subject of routine profiling by tax and customs officials, who took an X-ray of the truck and discovered that it was being used to transport a mortar launcher.
The driver of the vehicle, a Polish woman in her 20s, was arrested for firearms offenses and taken to the Store Street police station.
She was later released from Garda custody. The consultations continue.
Gardaí was alerted with local agents, as well as members of the Special Detective Unit (SDU), who deal with paramilitary threats and other threats related to terrorism, responding to the scene.
The army’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) device was also deployed to Dublin Port and stated that the device was safe and no ammunition was found. The weapon, a decommissioned Russian-made KRH 36Y 82mm mortar launcher, was removed from the scene around 6 a.m. and sent to the Ballistics Section at Garda Headquarters for further analysis.
At this stage, Gardaí does not believe that there was any criminal attempt involved in importing the weapon and instead believes that it was being transported to a collector in Northern Ireland.
It is understood that the weapon was stored in a wooden box for the purpose of preservation and display.
The Gardaí is currently in contact with the PSNI as part of the investigation, and investigations are also underway with officials in Wales when the vehicle arrived from Holyhead.
A Garda spokesperson said: “An Garda Síochána has carried out investigations with the Northern Ireland Police Service.
“An Garda Síochána continues to investigate the importation of this firearm into this jurisdiction.”
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