RIRA hunt Alan Ryan’s cash stash Michael O'Toole January 25, 2013 THE new bosses of the Real IRA in Dublin have launched a desperate hunt for a fortune hidden away by murdered boss Alan Ryan and his cronies, it emerged last night.
The terror group was led by Ryan (32) in Dublin until he was gunned down by criminals in the city last September.
And sources have confirmed to The Star that the new leadership of the RIRA in Dublin believe Ryan and his pals salted away hundreds of thousands of euro in cash they extorted from gangsters.
They sent some of the cash to the national leadership, but kept vast chunks of the money — and now the new bosses are determined to get their hands on it.
The want to use the money to buy weapons in eastern Europe for use in their campaign in the North.
The search for the cash is just part of the new Dublin leadership’s bid — on the orders of the national leadership of the terror organisation — to reorganise their units in the city.
They believe the RIRA under Ryan was involved in too much criminality — and they are now weeding out people they could class as criminals rather than republicans.
“They are trying to purify the RIRA in Dublin,” one source said last night.
“Too many of the people Ryan brought in were connected to ordinary crime and the new leadership is working their way through them.”
It’s understood RIRA bosses are holding one-on-one meetings with members from Dublin to see if they are committed to the cause.
“There is a real attitude of ‘you are either with us or against us’,” one expert said last night.
“People are being brought in individually and interrogated on whether they want to stay under the new rules.
“And those who the RIRA consider undesirable are being weeded out.”
Several allies of Ryan have already been forced out of the organisation — with some of them being brutally assaulted.
And, as well as kicking them out, the RIRA is also demanding they hand over the cash that they and Ryan collected in the name of the terror group.
Republican sources have claimed to The Star that there are serious internal difficulties within the RIRA.
Sources say former allies of Ryan who are still in the organisation want to take on gangsters in Dublin — while the new bosses want to get involved in attacks in the North instead.
Sources said a fractious meeting was held in a north Dublin pub in recent days to discuss the internal difficulties.
They said there was now potential for a split in the organisation.
Ryan and his cronies took more than €500,000 from gangsters in Dublin — on the threat of murder.
Gangsters were so incensed by this they set up their own group , called the Criminal Action Force, to protect themselves.
Ryan was killed over his extortion demands against two north Dublin crime bosses — who are now being hunted by the RIRA’s hit squads..
