A man and a woman being questioned over the seizure of guns and ammunition in a Dublin house have been freed without charge.
Three other men remain in custody over the find in a house Cabra on Thursday night.
Armed gardaí from the organised crime unit backed by the emergency response unit forced their way into a house in Cabra, north Dublin, at about 11pm on Thursday. They were acting on information that there were guns in the house.
Three men were in the back garden of the property and tried to quickly dispose of two handguns and a silencer when the gardaí moved in.
Gardaí are investigating if the back garden of the house was effectively being used as a firing range by criminals who wanted to test guns and improve their weapons handling.
One of those arrested is a target of a specialist Garda unit investigating organised crime in the city. He was a close associate of former gang leader Martin “Marlo” Hyland, who was shot dead almost four years ago.
The man, who is in his 20s, is suspected of being involved in Hyland's
Finglas-based crime gang.
The suspect was one of a large number of people investigated for the murder of Baiba Saulite in 2006. The Latvian mother of two was gunned down in her home in Swords, Co Dublin,.
The Garda believes that Ms Saulite was murdered in a contract killing on behalf of a man known to her who had wanted her dead as a result of a personal dispute. The Hyland gang and a group of Limerick criminals are believed to have helped organise and carry out the murder.
The other two men arrested in the back garden of the house in Cabra are also in their 20s and are associates of the chief suspect.
A couple in their 40s, who are believed to live in the house, were also arrested.
A Garda spokesman confirmed today two men remained at Store Street Garda Station and one was being held at Finglas Garda Station.
As well as the two guns and silencer, gardaí also found ammunition and a small number of spent cartridges in the back garden of the Cabra house.
The weapons have been sent to Garda Headquarters in the Phoenix Park, Dublin, for ballistics testing in an effort to determine if they had been fired in the garden just before gardaí arrived at the scene.