Former Irish Government aide on firearms charges

He is due to appear before Dublin District Court on October 10 for possession of a firearm and ammunition without a licence.

CAB detectives began their investigation into Mr Flynn’s activities in February after it emerged he had travelled to Bulgaria with the head of a Cork-based finance firm implicated in a suspected IRA money laundering ring.

For the last few months CAB officers have been investigating Mr Flynn. It is understood both his home in Cabra, north Dublin and his city centre offices on Harcourt Street were searched.

The firearms charges arose after detectives searched Mr Flynn’s Dublin office and found a gun and ammunition. A file was prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions and summonses were issued in person today.

A Garda spokesman said Mr Flynn would appear in court on a minor charge. The firearm has been described as a “pen gun”. It is understood the gun can fire a small gas cannister and is an ornament.

Ted Cunningham, director of Chesterton Finance, was arrested as part of a fraud squad probe by Irish police into the alleged dirty money racket.

Mr Flynn, a former vice-president of Sinn Féin and trade union leader, admitted in February that he accompanied Mr Cunningham on the trip to the former Soviet state but declined to reveal the purpose of the visit.

A non-executive director of the company, Mr Flynn, became the first high profile casualty of the probe when he resigned a number of key positions.

The trouble-shooter stepped down from his role as head of the Irish Government’s decentralisation body and chairman of the Bank of Scotland (Ireland), after being linked to the finance house at the centre of allegations of money laundering.

Both he and Mr Cunningham were questioned by CAB detectives probing the firm.

Mr Flynn has always denied any wrongdoing or links to money laundering.