http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/provos-panic-as-drug-gangs-500k-is-taken-31505392.html

Provos panic as drug gang's €500k is taken
Border money-laundering in disarray after cash and woman disappeared three weeks ago.

Border members of the Provisional IRA are said to be in a state of disarray after a huge sum of cash has apparently gone missing from one of their money-laundering fronts.

The shock over the loss of the money is said to be compounded by the fact that a young female employee, who is understood to have been 'close' but not related to one of the top criminal/IRA families, may be involved.
It is suspected, local sources said, that the money - put at just under €500,000 - went missing around the same time as the young woman, about three weeks ago.
To make matters worse for the Provos, it is also understood that a large part of the missing money belongs to one of Dublin's notorious drugs gangs.
The Sunday Independent understands that the loss of the money has not been reported to police on either side of the Border by the company or the family that runs it.
The front business is actually inside Northern Ireland but in an area close to the Border that has been described unofficially as being "very lightly policed" by members of the PSNI.
Sources have told this newspaper that a number of drugs gangs in Dublin and the Leinster area have been laundering their cash through the Provo front businesses along the Border because these are regarded as 'safe'.
No senior IRA figure has ever faced criminal prosecuted for running any of the money laundering or other IRA crime businesses in the Border area. It is this apparent lack of police and Revenue scrutiny on either side of the Border, sources said, that has been attracting the cash-rich drug gangs to launder their money through the Provo-controlled front businesses.
The family said to have been hit by the recent 'loss' owns several businesses and is also understood to have extensive property holdings on either side of the Border. Their main business is diesel 'washing' and smuggling.
One source said: "They're going mad over this. The whole country's talking about it. There was a 'creditors' meeting and they were all called to (a Border hotel) to meet the boss man. He hadn't much to say to them."
It is understood the 'boss man' of the operation is the civilian lieutenant of South Armagh's top Provo, the head of a criminal empire estimated at generating €70m in profit a year from international people, fuel and tobacco smuggling and a variety of other criminal activities.
The 'boss' is also the father of the young married man said to have been given the job of running the front business that suffered the loss.
Money-laundering has long been one of the Border IRA's central business pillars, which is why the missing money is said to be causing something close to panic.
Local sources said that as well as the cash, the company's 'legit' books are said to have also gone missing. These could prove explosive in terms of any prosecutions for money laundering, as the amounts of cash going through the business do not reflect the amounts claimed as 'assets' in the company accounts. The figure given in their company accounts is in the low six figures.
The exact amount of money missing from the business is not known, with sources saying that not even the family is aware of the exact amount due to the very large amounts of cash they are used to handling. But business sources in the Border said it would be very likely that the 'business' involved is known to handle six-figure sums at any given time.
It is said that if the family owners have to personally make up for the missing money, the aggregate loss would be 'not far off' a million euro.
Although there has been a great deal of speculation about the value of the Provos' crime empire - which Sinn Fein's opponents claim is being used partly to finance 'political' spending - well-placed sources said that it is much more than the last known 'official' estimate of €500m.
This figure was attributed to a 'Department of Justice source' in 2005. That disclosure came at a time when the government was applying pressure on Sinn Fein and the IRA in the aftermath of the December 2004 £26.5m (€36.3m) robbery of the Northern Bank and the murder of innocent man Robert McCartney in Belfast the following month.
One source who spoke to the Sunday Independent earlier this year said a 'likely' value for the IRA's financial holdings is €800m to €1bn, but this cannot be verified.
The organisation had very senior financial figures acting as advisers and is believed to have disposed of large amounts of its property portfolio in Ireland when this came under garda scrutiny around 2005-2006.
Luckily for the Provos, this was just prior to the economic collapse when property prices were still inflated. They are believed, however, to have suffered a very substantial loss with the 2008 Wall Street collapse where they were said to have had US$200m in investments.
It is also believed much of the IRA wealth is held in 'offshore' accounts and property investments in Eastern Europe and Portugal.
The Provos' business empire was under close scrutiny by the Garda's Criminal Assets Bureau up to 2005 but after the IRA issued a statement saying it had 'dumped arms' in July that year, sources said investigations were wound down.
There was one major but botched operation against the IRA business empire in the aftermath of the murder of Det Garda Adrian Donohoe in January 2013. A then 'teenage tear-away' relative of the 'royal' Provo family at the centre of the missing money is one of the suspects in the murder of the detective.
The affair is of considerable interest along the Border area due to the fact that the family involved is one of many who have become very wealthy in the years since the IRA called its ceasefire. Many of these newly wealthy 'republicans' are known for their ostentatious lifestyles. Modern mansions have sprung up in what were formerly known as Provo strongholds. High-end 4X4s and, for the wife, expensive saloon cars are the common form of family transport.
Many have sent children to expensive universities but other off-spring, many in their 20s and 30s, remained in the family's criminal businesses.
Common among the families is open support of Sinn Fein, despite the fact that Gerry Adams has stated many times this year that those responsible for the fuel and other illicit enterprises along the Border area are "criminals". Local sources said Adams' repeated denunciations of the Border 'criminals' has been unsettling for many of the families who have been heard openly criticising the Sinn Fein leader of 32 years.
Local sources said that when Adams turned up at an IRA commemoration in March this year and privately asked that the local families to tone down their criminality, he was told to: "F**k off."
Sunday Independent

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunday...s-31479701.html

Smuggler: I regret sending guns to Provos
"My guns may have been used in 'criminal' hit on Kevin McGuigan," claims gunrunner Mike Logan.

By Suzanne Breen

A Florida stockbroker turned gunrunner says he fears he may have sent the IRA the gun used to murder Kevin McGuigan.

Mike Logan says he posted the IRA around 200 handguns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition during his five-year gun-running career which began after the Provos’ ceasefire.

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The man he says was his IRA contact in the smuggling operation was Sean ‘Spike’ Murray who was part of a Sinn Fein delegation which met the PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton yesterday to discuss claims of IRA involvement in the McGuigan murder.

In an exclusive interview with Sunday Life, Logan said: “I now massively regret every weapon I ever bought for the IRA. Unfortunately, I think there is a very good chance I could have sent the gun that was used to kill Kevin McGuigan.

“I am horrified at his murder. Kevin was a father of nine, a grandfather, and a former IRA prisoner. The very idea that I sent a weapon which may have been used to shoot him, in front of his wife, makes me want to puke.

“I am totally distancing myself from such attacks. I am appalled that guns I sent are being used to police the nationalist community. I wash my hands of it all. This is criminal, not political, activity. The war is over.”

Kevin McGuigan was gunned down outside his Short Strand home almost a fortnight ago. The PSNI believes IRA members were involved.

The IRA believed that McGuigan had been the gunman who shot dead their former Belfast commander, Jock Davison, in May.

Logan, who is third-generation Irish, starting sending weapons to the Provisionals in 1995. He worked directly for Spike Murray, the head of the IRA’s Northern Command, who has served seven years in the H-blocks for explosive offences.

Logan travelled to Belfast to meet Spike Murray and pick up the IRA’s shopping list of arms. He revealed to Sunday Life that, at one meeting, Murray brought along Jock Davison: “I remember it well. We met at a GAA pitch near the City Cemetery.”

Murray sent his trusted IRA ally, Conor Claxton from west Belfast, to join Logan in Florida in 1999 to increase the volume of guns.

Logan hid the guns and ammunition in children’s toys – mainly fire engines – and posted them to Ireland. One weapon was used by the Provos to murder two policemen in Lurgan in 1997 and another killed Real IRA Belfast commander, Joe O’Connor, three years later.

Last Thursday, 53-year-old Patrick Fitzpatrick appeared in court charged with possessing a Glock pistol with intent to endanger life.

He had been interviewed by detectives investigating the murder of Kevin McGuigan. A police officer told the court that the Glock’s identification markings had been removed.

Logan said: “I sent Spike Murray about 25 Glocks and compact Glocks which are very rare. Spike told me that the IRA didn’t have Glocks. ‘If you can get them, that would be great’, he said.

“The IRA didn’t have any other route established of getting these weapons. As far as I’m aware, the only Glocks the IRA possess would have come from me.”

Logan said that Conor Claxton removed the serial numbers of the guns he personally sent to Ireland. “Conor used a tool called a dremel, it’s a mini-grinder, to file off the serial numbers.

“I never did this with the weapons I posted but the IRA may have removed the serial number after the guns reached Ireland. But it’s really easy for forensic experts to use acid to retrieve the serial number and trace the weapon.”

Logan said that he once asked Spike Murray if the IRA wanted AK-47s: “Spike said he didn’t. It was pistols the IRA were most keen to get hold off.

“In hindsight, I can see why. They wanted to use these guns in their own community, to control any opposition, to intimidate and eliminate any threat. There would be no need for AKs in small neighbourhoods like the Short Strand.”

Logan said he had believed the IRA wanted the weapons for “a campaign to force a British withdrawal and united Ireland”.

He said: “I thought they’d be used against military targets, not against civilians. The IRA lied to me as they lied to everybody.”

Logan was given immunity from prosecution by the US authorities in 2002 in exchange for giving them information about the weapons he had bought for the IRA.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/new...k-31515657.html

Victims of IRA 'should get assets of Gaddafi held in UK'

Hundreds of millions of pounds of Colonel Gaddafi's assets held in the UK must be used to compensate victims of Libyan-sponsored IRA terrorism, MPs have been told.

At least £900m (€1.2bn) of the dead dictator's fortune has been frozen by the Government and an Act of Parliament could release it to those bereaved and injured in IRA bombs, according to a leading lawyer.
Jason McCue, who for 10 years has been attempting to extract compensation from Libya for the victims, was giving evidence to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee.
He accused former Labour prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown of putting commercial and diplomatic interests ahead of justice in their deals with the regime.
He said while the US, France and Germany had negotiated multi-million pound settlements with Gaddafi for its citizens impacted by Libyan-directed terrorism, the UK failed to lobby for similar pay-outs for IRA victims for fear of jeopardising lucrative oil and arms deals.
"What you see is a policy of arms, oil and creating a partnership with Libya, Gaddafi, which puts justice issues and victims as a complete secondary class in everything," Mr McCue told the committee.
Semtex

The lawyer was giving evidence at the start of the committee's inquiry into how the Government handled the issue of compensation for UK victims of IRA bombs manufactured with Semtex provided by Gaddafi. He claimed Mr Blair prioritised a BP oil deal and a weapons agreement that would have seen Gaddafi purchase a Jernas missile defence system made by part UK-owned manufacturer MBDA, over the issue of compensation.
Mr McCue questioned the logic of this policy given the ultimate demise of Gaddafi and his regime in 2011.
"I would ask you to look at the facts now," he urged.
"Where is the Jernas £400m deal? Not happened. Where is the BP deal that was going to make 13 billion? Not happening in that country any more. Where is our special relationship with Libya? Zero.
"What have we missed? £400m to these people (the victims) who then could have been using this to recreate their lives after they were destroyed by this rogue regime. It is an incredible incompetence of positioning and strategy."
He said the current British government was refusing to act to release the frozen assets to compensate victims.
Irish Independent

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/sin...e-31513491.html

Sinn Féin 'shocked' at Bobby Storey's arrest in Provisional IRA murder probe.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has he was "shocked" by the news that senior party member Bobby Storey has been arrested by police investigating a murder by Provisional IRA members.

Mr Adams said he was gravely concerned by developments surrounding the murder of Kevin McGuigan, saying that was "no rationale, logic or evidence to suggest there is any organisation in mainstream republicanism except for Sinn Féin".

Speaking to RTÉ's News at One, Mr Adams said the IRA, as people knew it, was gone.

He said there is no reason why he would be telling any untruths about the "going away of the IRA".

Read More: Villiers threatens to cut North's spending

“Sinn Féin, and others, have built a better process than war. There is no reason for any of us to be telling untruths about the end of the IRA.

"We are not accountable to the murders of Kevin McGuigan and Gerard Davison, and nor are the people who elected us."
The Sinn Fein president described Mr Storey as a valued member of Sinn Fein's leadership and a person of great integrity.

The party's northern chairman, Mr Storey was detained today in connection with the fatal shooting of Kevin McGuigan in Belfast last month.
He was speaking following the arrest of three men, including the party's northern chairman Bobby Storey, in Belfast this morning.
Two other men were also arrested, well-known republicans Eddie Copeland and Brian Gillen.

Read More: IRA 'the most ruthless killing machine in the whole of the western world', Stormont is told
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams3
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams
Mr Adams said the PSNI must be allowed carry out its investigation.
“Bobby is valuable and trusted member of our leadership... and I would presume he will be released soon," Ms Adams told RTÉ's News At One.
“I have grave concerns about how all of this has developed, including the arrest of Bobby Storey,” he said.
He later added: “He is a long standing friend of mine. I first met him in the cages of Long Kesh when he was very young man and the rest if a matter of history.”

“[Our party] is very clear that the PNSI must be supported in their investigation into the killing of Kevin McGuigan and Gerard Davison, and we’re mindful that two families have been bereaved."

Mr Adams said the murders of Mr McGuigan and that of Gerard 'Jock' Davison in May were being used in a 'contrived way' in an attempt to exclude Sinn Féin.

"Lets be mindful of the agendas being served here. I have grave concerns about how all of this current crisis has developed since the dreadful killing of Kevin McGuigan, and am mindful in recent times that two families, the Davison and McGuigan families, have both been grieved."
He added: “I noted a remark from the Taoiseach that I need to exert more control over former members of the IRA. I can’t exert control over former members of the IRA,” he said.
He added: “No more than the Taoiseach can be responsible for former members of Fine Gael or Micheál Martin can be responsible for former members of Fianna Fáil. We have repudiated it, we have condemned it and we have made it clear they do not do this in our name.”
The Sinn Féin leader claimed the potential for a breakdown of the talks at Stormont House was more to do with ongoing competition between the UUP and DUP.

Read More: Inquiry into garda killing of Real IRA raider opens

He described the battle between the unionist parties as "wrong" and "reprehensible politics of the lowest kind".
Victim: Kevin McGuigan was shot dead in east Belfast3
Victim: Kevin McGuigan was shot dead in east Belfast
The PNSI have said the murder of Kevin McGuigan was not sanctioned by the IRA.
A police assessment of IRA involvement in the killing has brought the power-sharing institutions in Northern Ireland to the brink of collapse.
The arrests, made in north and west Belfast, take to 16 the number of people detained as part of the murder investigation to date.
One man has been charged with weapons offences.
Mr McGuigan, a 53-year-old father-of-nine, was gunned down outside his home at Comber Court in the Short Strand area of east Belfast last month.
He was suspected by some in the republican movement of involvement in the murder of former IRA leader Gerard "Jock" Davison close to Belfast city centre four months ago.
Police believe his killing was a revenge attack by Mr Davison's republican associates.
Although detectives said individual IRA members were involved in the shooting, they have said there is no evidence to suggest it was sanctioned at a senior level.

Read More: Provos panic as drug gang's €500k is taken
Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Chief Constable George Hamilton has also said the IRA is not engaged in terrorism but instead is pursuing a peaceful, political republican agenda.
The political fallout from both murders has had major repercussions for the devolved Assembly, with crisis talks on-going at Stormont in a bid to save the stumbling institutions.
Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness insisted Mr Storey was a key advocate of peace.
"I was surprised to learn about the arrest this morning of our six-county party chair Bobby Storey," he said.
"Bobby Storey played a leading role in the development of Sinn Fein's peace strategy and is a long standing and loyal supporter, defender and advocate of the peace and political processes.
"We look forward with confidence to his early release."
Mr Storey’s arrest comes as the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) threatens to bring down the power sharing executive in Northern Ireland over claims from the PSNI that certain Provisional IRA’s structures still exist.
Mr Adams said there is “only one republican organisation involved in the republican struggle” and that is Sinn Féin.
“You don’t have to believe me. You can believe whoever you wish,” he added.
He said his party was willing to go before the electorate in the North if the DUP pulls out of Stormont.
“Sinn Féin is very happy to go before the electorate with our record and with our vision for the future. At the core of this is an attempt to exclude those who vote for Sinn Féin and we will not tolerate that,” he said.
Online Editors

BBC Spotlight: The IRA – Have They Gone Away? – Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isf_jeiKbGo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyCzbZA2...tion_3800042555