GARDAÍ investigating four suspect device finds yesterday believe three of them are linked to the drugs trade. Two of the devices were viable pipe bombs.
The finds bring to just over 150 the number of times the Army's bomb disposal teams have been called out this year, compared with 98 cases in all of last year.
The first of yesterday's finds was made in Coolock, Dublin. Gardaí carrying out a planned search found a grenade on open ground at the back of houses on Grove Lane off Malahide Road.
The device was found to be a spent grenade. The area was declared safe at 10.40am.
The Garda search team found a number of other items concealed with the grenade, including cocaine valued at €75,000, small amounts of heroin and cannabis, ammunition, an imitation sawn-off shotgun and a Samurai sword. The searches targeted members of a drugs gang from the Coolock area.
The second and third devices were discovered in Ronanstown and Ballyfermot, both in west Dublin. Gardaí believe those two incidents are linked.
In Ronanstown a pipe bomb was found under a car at Foxton Avenue at 10am. The Army's bomb disposal team carried out a controlled explosion and declared the area safe by 11.05am.
At 11.20am another pipe bomb was spotted under a car outside a house on Ballyneety Road, Ballyfermot. The bomb disposal experts made it safe by 11.55am.
The fourth device was discovered by council workers at Oliver Bond flats in Dublin's south inner city. Army bomb disposal experts travelling into the city centre from the Ballyfermot pipe bomb find examined the package and declared it a hoax at 12.30pm.
