The Special Criminal Court has heard that two Dublin men caught with a cache of firearms and ammunition in a Dublin business park last year were part of an elaborate front pretending to be a legitimate business.
Jonathan Harding, 44, of McNeill Court, Sallins, Co Kildare, and 33-year-old James Walsh, from Neilstown Drive, Clondalkin, Dublin, pleaded guilty to the possession of nine revolvers, four pistols, a sub-machine-gun, an assault rifle, a silencer, ten magazines and 1,335 rounds of various ammunition.
They will be sentenced in three weeks.
Gardaí had Harding and Walsh under surveillance and the court heard they were followed to an industrial unit in the Greenogue Business Park on 24 January last year.
The unit was set up to look like a branch of a legitimate UK logistics company, with lever arch files at reception and forklifts inside.
When officers raided the unit on foot of an emergency Section 29 warrant, they found the weapons and ammunition.
Four revolvers were laid out on carpet on the floor "primed, armed and ready to be used".
A transit van with a secret compartment with five rounds of ammunition was also found parked inside.
Walsh was arrested inside, Harding and another man, known as Mr B, were arrested when their van was intercepted at a nearby petrol station.
Walsh's DNA was later found on plastic cup lids and two newspapers in the unit and Harding's was found on gloves there.
Detective Inspector Noel Browne said neither man was a prime mover in the operation.
He said that Harding, a convicted drug dealer and father of five, did not have the acumen to design such an operation, while Walsh was a trusted lieutenant.
Mr Justice Tony Hunt said they would be sentenced on 30 January. Both men face up to 14 years in prison.
