GARDAI are to continue searching today for arms and explosives in the Border area where bombmaking equipment was found last week.
A Garda forensic team is examining an unidentified explosive which was found along with two kgs of Semtex and one kg of homemade explosive.
The cache recovered on Friday included cortex, detonators, fuse wire and 22 mortar fuses. In follow up searches on Saturday, a mortar tube, about 60 rounds of high calibre ammunition and a smaller amount of bomb making items were found in the same area of Ballybinaby, Hackballscross, Co Louth.
The firearms recovered were described as "in good condition, all serviceable" by a security source. They included two Armalites, a Kalashnikov rifle and a .22 rifle, two .38 revolvers and two pistols. Between 10,000-15,000 rounds of assorted ammunition were also recovered.
The finds were all discovered in four locations within a 100 square yard area, 500 yards from the Border with south Armagh. The arms and explosives were in plastic barrels hidden in the middle of loosely built stone walls.
Gardai say that the search in the Ballybinaby area resumed last Tuesday and was part of a series of searches along the Border area.
A search of another part of the townland at the beginning of the month uncovered 21 Mark VI mortars with holding tubes - the same kind used in the Provisional IRA attack on Heathrow Airport in 1994. The searches are part of a joint Garda Army operation.
Reports that a booby trapped device was found were denied by Garda Chief Supt Alo McHugh. He said the searches would continue until the gardai were happy that they had recovered everything there.
They resume this morning in other Border areas which, like Ballybinaby, are reached easily from the North.
Also seized by gardai were a number of Garda stop signs and checkpoint signs as well as flashing beacons. They are believed to have been stolen in recent weeks during the BSE checkpoints along the Border.