Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
TWO HELD AFTER PSNI WEAPONS CACHE RAID
Man & woman ‘linked to New IRA find’
POLICE investigating a weapons find in a burned-out boiler house have arrested two people.
The pair were detained during the operation in West Belfast yesterday morning.
A large number of PSNI vehicles were seen in the Whiterock Road area during the raid.
Detectives said a 31-year-old man and 33-year-old woman were arrested under the Terrorism Act.
A statement said they were “arrested in the Ballymurphy area of West Belfast on suspicion of dissident republican activity in connection to the discovery of a significant amount of weapons and ammunition in the Rodney Drive area on November 14”.
Police said two properties in the area were also searched and a number of items were seized, adding they “will be sent for forensic examination including a small quantity of suspected Class B drugs”.
The suspects were taken to Musgrave Serious Crime Suite for questioning. Det Chief Insp Stuart Griffin said: “As part of our investigations into ongoing dissident republican activity we have arrested a man and a woman earlier today.
“This was in connection to the discovery of a substantial amount of weapons and ammunition which we strongly believe belongs to the New IRA.
“These weapons and ammunition were stored in a reckless manner, on top of a hot boiler in a residential area.
“Some of the rounds exploded during a fire which caused significant danger to local residents who were in the area and highlighted once again these terrorists really do not care about the safety of anyone living in their community.”
The dissident republican group Saoradh posted on its Facebook page one of their “activists” had been “seized by Crown Forces”.