A man who was arrested carrying a bag containing an assault rifle in Dublin city centre man has been jailed for four years.
Davin Dwyer (23) an apprentice plumber of Drumcarra Avenue, Jobstown, Tallaght pleaded guilty last month to the unlawful possession of a Kalashnikov assault rifle and 21 rounds of ammunition at Camden Street on November 22nd last year.
The State did not proceed with another charge against Dwyer of INLA membership.
Garda Terry Gleeson, of Harcourt Terrace, told the Special Criminal Court he and his partner were stuck in traffic when they spotted Dwyer hurrying along Wexford Street.
He said the gardaí stopped their car outside a Spar shop in Camden Street and then saw the outline of a rifle protruding from the bag.
They then stopped Dwyer and arrested him. The bag was searched and was found to contain an assault riftle and two magazines, one of which was loaded with 21 rounds of ammunition.
The court heard Dwyer told the arresting gardaí he had found the bag in a laneway.
However, during Garda interviews, Dwyer took responsibility for the bag but denied knowing what was in it. He told gardaí he was to pick up the bag and it was to be dropped off, but he did not know what it contained.
Dwyer's counsel Mr John Peart SC said that his client was not "a career criminal'' and was probably being used as a courier.
Sentencing him to four years imprisonment to date from the date of his arrest last November, Mr Justice Paul Butler, presiding, said that the Criminal Justice Act of 2000 provided for a mandatory minimum sentence
for firearms offences of five years unless there were exceptional circumstances.
The judge said that the court considered in this case there were exceptional circumstances. He said that Dwyer has admitted the facts from the beginning, had pleaded guilty at an early stage and had never been in prison before.