Irish prison officers were taken aback yesterday when a lorry driver about to collect refuse skips from a jail asked them to mind his loaded handgun until he came out again.
The driver, in his 30s, was making a routine collection from St Patrick's Institution for young offenders, when he was stopped by officers from the operational support unit.
He was asked if he was carrying anything that might be prohibited inside the prison, and handed over a loaded Walther semi-automatic pistol, two magazines and 14 rounds of ammunition. Startled officers contacted gardai in nearby Mountjoy station and the man was arrested.
He was taken to Mountjoy station for questioning and was still being held last night. He can be detained without charge for a maximum of three days. Gardai believe the man, who has Hungarian-Romanian dual nationality, was not attempting to smuggle the weapon and ammunition in to the jail.
But they said there were anxious to establish when and where he had acquired the gun and if he had smuggled it into the State. The gun, which had not been registered, was taken away for ballistic tests by gardai.
Last night Fine Gael justice spokesman Charlie Flanagan said it was worrying and an indictment of the number of firearms in circulation when a person offered to hand over a weapon while entering a prison in the course of carrying out his work duties.
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