AN AK47 assault rifle has been found by gardaí beside one of the State’s best known private schools.
Gardaí believe the high-powered weapon is owned by an organised crime gang that was targeted in a series of dawn searches yesterday.
The gun was found in sparse undergrowth beside the perimeter wall of St Gerard’s School, Bray, Co Wicklow.
Gardaí arrested eight people in Bray yesterday morning for questioning about an attack outside a pub in Finglas, north Dublin, in December in which a local man was lucky to survive after being wounded four times.
As the arrests were being made, gardaí carried out searches at some of the houses where the suspects were living and at a number of locations, including the spot where the AK47 was found.
Garda sources do not believe the gun was used in the shooting at the Cappagh Nua Pub, Barry Road, Finglas, on December 30th.
However, they believe the AK47 is owned by the Bray-based gang linked to the Finglas shooting.
The same sources said yesterday’s arrests in Bray are not linked to a shooting in the town on Tuesday night when an innocent woman was wounded after a gunman opened fire on the wrong house.
The eight people arrested in connection with the Finglas shooting were detained at different addresses in Bray. The suspects, including five men and three women, range in age from 26 to 46 years.
They were all detained under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.
They are being detained at Garda stations in Bray, Dún Laoghaire, Blanchardstown, Finglas and Cabra.
Gardaí believe members of the Bray gang are involved in a number of drug-related disputes. Detectives believe the gang was involved in the shooting in Finglas in December as part of one of those disputes.
The same gang is also the chief suspect for at least three non-fatal gun attacks in Bray in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, in what is believed to be an unrelated incident, a woman in her 40s is recovering in hospital after she was shot at her home in Bray on Tuesday night.
A gunman opened fire on the woman’s house on Greenpark Road at 7.30pm, discharging a number of shots.
One of the bullets went through the living room window and wounded the woman in the back.
The gunman was then driven at speed from the scene.
The injured woman was taken to St Vincent’s hospital where she remained last night.
Her injuries are not life threatening.
Gardaí have appealed for anybody with information, or who may have seen the car carrying the gunman and his accomplice driving at speed in the area, to contact them in confidence at Bray Garda station.
Sources said the woman who was shot is in no way linked to any form of criminality.
Detectives are working on the theory that the gunman shot at the wrong house.
