Tests have showed that a car bomb intercepted by gardaí last week and destined for use in the ongoing gangland feud between south Dublin criminals was the most sophisticated seized in the Republic, according to security sources.
Army bomb disposal specialists were called in by gardaí last Friday night after the bomb was discovered as it was being transported near Dublin airport.
Since then a series of tests have been carried out on the device which have revealed it to be the most professionally constructed car bomb ever found here.
It is believed to have been made by a Louth-based bomb making expert who has most recently been involved with the Real IRA.
The examination of the device has revealed it was made up of improvised components, including home-made explosives.
One source said the bomb would have been fitted to a car directly under the driver's seat. On detonation it would have destroyed one side of the vehicle, killing the driver and killing or seriously injuring anybody else in the immediate vicinity.
It was primed and ready to be used and had even been fitted with large magnets for its easy attachment to the chassis of a vehicle. It also had a safety switch allowing for it to be disarmed during transportation and easily activated once in place. It was also fitted with a mercury tilt switch.
This involves a small quantity of mercury being placed in a capsule in the electrical circuit used to detonate the bomb. When a vehicle is started and as soon as it drives uphill, a bubble in the mercury rolls to the bottom of the capsule completing the circuit and detonating the device.
A number of elaborate hoax car bomb devices used by criminals have been discovered by gardaí in recent years and at least one device which gardaí believe may have been capable of exploding was found in Limerick two years ago.
However, the device found last Friday was much more sophisticated, and has raised concerns that experienced paramilitary bomb-making experts have begun to sell their services to organised crime gangs in the Republic.
A similar device constructed by the INLA was used in the 1979 murder at Westminster of Tory MP Airey Neave, the man credited with masterminding the rise to power of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.
A similar device was also used in the 1999 car bomb murder in Lurgan of solicitor Rosemary Nelson. She was killed by loyalists after representing a number of high-profile republicans.
Gardaí are working on the theory that the man who supplied the device found last Friday was acting in a freelance capacity, independent of the Real IRA, and was being paid by a crime gang in Dublin.
The target of the bomb is believed to have been a Dublin criminal living in Ballyfermot, but who is involved in one of the Crumlin-based gangs in the feud which has resulted in three murders in the past three weeks.
