Gardaí in Dublin are investigating separate incidents involving armed criminals in the city in which a house was fired at in a late-night attack while hours earlier an AK47 assault rifle was seized at a second location, writes Conor Lally, Crime Correspondent
In another investigation into organised crime in the capital detectives were last night continuing to question two men about the double murder last December of leading drug dealer Martin "Marlo" Hyland and apprentice plumber Anthony Campbell.
Gardaí believe one of the men under arrest was also indirectly involved in the killing of Latvian mother of two Baiba Saulite in Swords, Co Dublin, last November.
He is believed to have helped source vehicles for the men who carried out her murder and the murders of Hyland and Mr Campbell. This man is expected to soon face criminal charges linked to the theft of vehicles.
He is a close associate of the man gardaí believe shot Hyland dead and was also directly involved in the Baiba Saulite killing.
The man was arrested on Thursday morning and was taken to Blanchardstown Garda station where he was questioned under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act. He was still being held there last night.
The second arrested man is a foreign national who has been living in Dublin for some time and was well known to Hyland.
Gardaí described his arrest as "significant". They suspect while he was not directly involved in the shootings he is believed to have vital information about them.
He is currently on bail awaiting trial on drugs charges.
Hyland, who was one of the biggest drug dealers in Ireland, was shot by his own gang because he was attracting too much Garda and media attention.
Mr Campbell was shot dead because he happened to be working at the house in Scribblestown Park, Finglas, when the gunmen called to kill Hyland.
Meanwhile, in the first of the two gun crime incidents on Thursday, members of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation's organised crime unit entered a house in Casement Park, Finglas, to search it just after 5pm.
They found an AK47 assault rifle along with 100 rounds of ammunition and a magazine. A 24-year-old man living in the house was arrested. He was detained at Cabra Garda station under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.
In a second incident, which took place just before midnight on Thursday, a family in the north Dublin suburb of Coolock escaped injury after shots were fired at their house.
The incident took place at 11.55pm when the occupants of a green BMW fired two shots from a shotgun at the front door of the house on Bunratty Road. A couple and their young child in the house at the time were uninjured.