GARDAI believe they have foiled a hit by eastern European gangsters after they swooped on gun-toting suspects.
Three people, who are all from Lithuania, were arrested after drugs unit officers in plain clothes stopped a car in Adamstown in west Dublin yesterday afternoon and recovered two loaded pistols and silencers.
The stop-and-search operation was carried out by officers from Ronanstown Station on the Newcastle Road at The Grange, close to Adamstown, just after 3pm.
The trio were arrested and were being quizzed at Lucan and Ronanstown Garda stations last night, where they can be held for up to three days without charge.
Rival
Sources last night said officers were trying to establish what the men were planning, but suspect they were on their way to kill a rival eastern European criminal.
And insiders also said they suspected the planned hit may have been connected to the murder of Lithuanian gangster Gintaras Zelvys — who was shot dead just a few kilometres away.
Zelvys (43) was shot dead at the second-hand clothing centre in Rathcoole, west Dublin, at the start of May 2013.
He was the leader of the biggest Lithuanian gang in the country, which has more than 30 members.
Zelvys, a convicted rapist, was heavily involved in extortion and prostitution and it is known that he specialised in terrorising other Lithuanians.
