Gardai found 33 bags containing 1,750kg of fertiliser intended for use in an explosive mixture in a disused fish shop on Howth Pier last year, the Special Criminal Court was told yesterday.
The court heard that gardai mounted a two-day surveillance operation on the fish shop - Molly Malone's - after they followed suspected subversives from Julianstown, Co Meath. In a later search they found another bag of similar fertiliser in a shed beside a house at Bettystown, Co Meath.
Mr Paul O'Higgins SC, prosecuting, said the fertiliser could be used with diesel or sugar to make explosives.
Four men went on trial yesterday accused of offences connected with the two finds. Mr Eamonn Flanagan (42), of The Square, Skerries, Mr Seamus McLoughlin (66), of Balkill Park, Howth, and Mr Michael Blount (48), of Bath Road, Balbriggan, pleaded not guilty to possession of an explosive substance with intent to endanger life or to enable another person to do so at West Pier, Howth, Co Dublin, on January 5th last year. A fourth man, Mr Joseph Dillon (52), of Green Lawn, Skerries, pleaded not guilty to possession of an explosive substance with intent to endanger life or to enable another person to do so at Windswept, Golf Links Road, Bettystown, Co Meath, on January 5th last year.
Mr O'Higgins said gardai saw Mr Dillon, Mr Flanagan and Mr McLoughlin in a carpark at Julianstown, Co Meath, on the morning of January 5th, 1998. They followed Mr Dillon and Mr Flanagan, who were driving a Peugeot car, and Mr McLoughlin, who was driving a Daf truck. The two vehicles went to a house at Golf Links Road in Bettystown where the truck was reversed into a garage at the side of the house.
Later, the truck, driven by Mr McLoughlin, went to the west pier at Howth where it was parked outside a disused fish shop known as Molly Malone's. Gardai kept the truck under surveillance and later that day Mr McLoughlin, Mr Flanagan and Mr Blount were seen unloading a large number of white bags and bringing them into Molly Malone's. The shop was kept under surveillance until the afternoon of January 7th when gardai searched it and found a large number of bags containing crushed calcium ammonium nitrate fertiliser.
Comdt Ted Shine, an explosives ordnance disposal officer, told the court he removed 28 bags containing 1,500kg of crushed fertiliser and five bags containing 250kg of fertiliser in granule form from the shop. He disposed of most of the fertiliser in the sea and kept several kilos for testing.
Cmdt Shine said he tested the crushed fertiliser by putting it in a metal cylinder and attaching a detonator and booster. One cylinder totally disintegrated and sand bags surrounding it were completely destroyed and large fragments were also blown out of railway sleepers placed around it.
He said calcium ammonium nitrate can be added to other materials such as sugar or diesel oil to make a high-explosive mix. He said that 1,500kg of the crushed fertiliser would have the equivalence of 300kg of TNT.
Cross-examined by Mr Anthony Sammon SC, for Mr McLoughlin, Comdt Shine said he regarded crushed calcium ammonium nitrate as a "low-powered high explosive". He also said he did not know how the fertiliser in its granule form would behave.
The trial continues today.