murder plot has been foiled after machine guns belonging to Freddie Thompson’s gang were seized by gardai.
The deadly pistols, fitted with silencers and 300 rounds of ammunition, were to be used to target Thompson’s enemies.
‘Fat’ Freddie’s cache was found in a raid by detectives at Damastown Industrial Estate, Mulhuddart.
A man in his mid-30s, believed to be a ‘clean front', was arrested.
“We prevented a bloodbath,” revealed a senior garda source today. Detectives believe that Thompson has a number of reasons for getting tooled up:
- His gang has been targeted for a “crime tax” by the INLA/Real IRA racketeers who are trying to control Dublin’s pub door security business and protection rackets.
- Fat Freddie is owed serious amounts of money by drug dealers and sent two cronies from Spain in recent days to collect.
- He is determined to wipe out the remainder of his rival drugs gang in Crumlin. His desire to do this was proven several months ago when officers found two rocket launchers.
The strongest theory today was that ‘Fat’ Freddie’s gang were going to use the weapons cache to mount an ambush on his Crumlin rivals.
A source told the Herald: “We believe he was going target rival gangsters as they drank in a pub. This seizure has prevented a massacre.”
Thompson, who was in Amsterdam today, was reportedly incandescent with rage following the haul by South Central Division detectives.
The seizure at 5.15pm yesterday was made by officers at Kevin Street and Pearse Street stations, who feared that the a major underworld attack was just days away.
Despite the risk of arrest, gardai are understood to have been aware that Thompson and some of his associates have been moving between here and the Netherlands in recent weeks.
Thompson and his gangland pal Gary Hutch are currently in hiding in Amsterdam's criminal underworld after European Arrest Warrants were issued for them by Spanish police.
Empire
Authorities in the Costa Del Sol wish to quiz them over the killing of gun-for-hire Paddy Doyle in 2008 in the Costa Del Sol and their involvement with Christy Kinahan's drugs empire.
Gardai have not yet established how long the Ingram machine guns had been in the country.
They are likely to have been supplied to the gang as “sweeteners” with drug shipments.
The weapons cache contained four Ingram 9mm rapidfiring machine guns, four silencers, four loaded magazines each, 16 rounds of 9mm parabellum bullets and another bag of loose ammunition.
Detectives found the guns when they swooped on a lockup at Damastown industrial estate in Mulhuddart in west Dublin.
Rocket
The discovery follows the discovery of two rocket launchers, an AK-47 and €700,000 worth of cocaine belonging to ‘Fat’ Freddie, at a lockup outside the village of Clane, Co Kildare.
The Thompson gang had been planning to use the rocket- propelled grenades (RPGs) to annihilate the rival Crumlin gang in a ‘spectacular'.
A source told the Herald: “A peace talks and drug deal meet was being set up.
“The intelligence was that two RPG rocket launchers would be fired at the building once the rivals were inside the room there.
“The seizure put an end to that. But the Ingram job appears to have been the gang’s plan B.”
The raid was part of Operation Lamp, which has been targeting members of Thompson's drug trafficking gang, based in the Crumlin area.
‘Fat’ Freddie's Irish drug operation has been dealt serious blows this summer.
Almost €11 million worth of cocaine has been seized and a number of cocaine factories and safe houses have been raided.
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