Ken Foy Crime correspondent – 12 September 2013 02:30 PM FIVE men with links to murdered terror boss Alan Ryan – including a suspected member of the colour party for his anniversary march – have been arrested.
Armed gardai recovered guns, ammunition, components for pipe bombs and four cars as part of a major surveillance operation.
The five men – all in their 20s – remained in custody in three separate Dublin garda stations last night. They include two young criminals who survived gun attacks in the past year.
Investigating officers will now try to pin IRA membership charges on the five men.
A senior source said: "To call these fellas a motley crew is an understatement – what they all have in common is an allegiance to the Alan Ryan IRA faction which has been decimated in recent months.
"They have well over 200 previous convictions between them and have been long-term targets of the Special Detective Unit.
"The fear was that they were planning to murder someone or certainly carry out an attack," the source added.
The men were detained after the two cars they were travelling in were stopped near Ashford, Co Wicklow, shortly after 4am yesterday. In follow-up searches, a woman in her 20s was arrested in Ballymun.
Apart from the duo who survived assassination attempts, two of the other arrested men are notorious Traveller criminal brothers who have been involved in the manufacture and distribution of pipe bombs.
The fifth man is a Kosovan national who is based in Dublin's north inner city and is suspected to be a member of the colour party at Alan Ryan's commemoration last weekend
The other four are all based on the capital's northside.
