A Dublin man has been charged with membership of an illegal organisation following a Garda investigation into Real IRA arms smuggling from France.
Mr Gary Roche (28), with an address at, Chapelizod, Dublin, was charged in the Special Criminal Court this morning with membership of an illegal organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Oglaigh na hEireann, otherwise the IRA on November 4th.
Mr Roche was arrested at his home last Tuesday. The accused was remanded in custody until next week when a bail application is due to be heard.
Earlier today a second man arrested in Dublin as part of garda investigations into a Real IRA arms smuggling route from France was released. A file is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The arrests followed the discovery by French police of three guns and ammunition in a hide in a forest near the Channel ferryport of Dieppe.
Six people were arrested by French police last Tuesday as part of the joint operation with gardai. One of those was released earlier today.
The released man, the president of a twinning committee for the Brittany town of Guingamp and Shannon in central Ireland, had been held for 24 hours.
The other five Breton detainees, including a municipal councillor in Guingamp, were being questioned by anti-terrorist police ahead of a possible transfer to Paris.
The raids followed several months of surveillance, during which the two Irish suspects twice travelled to France.