Ken Foy, Pime Correspondent – 05 April 2013 10:40 AM
An alleged IRA man and convicted drug dealer has been kicked out of the dissident republicans' E3 landing in Portlaoise
EAMON McNamee (32), who was sentenced to five years in jail over a major drugs haul, is one of eight men charged at the Special Criminal Court with membership of the IRA on Easter Sunday.
He was remanded in custody to Portlaoise Prison, where he was placed on the special landing with IRA figures.
However the Herald has learned that he was "kicked out" by the dissidents late on Wednesday night.
"It is probably over his drug-dealing past. However, it is shocking that those boys would not have known about it. He was not assaulted anyway and went quietly; sure he had no choice," said a jail insider.
Prison sources would only say that McNamee was moved for 'operational reasons'.
McNamee's arrest on suspicion of being a member of the IRA follows statements from the organisation that it planned to weed out criminality and drug-dealing within its ranks.
Since the murder of Dublin Real IRA terror boss Alan Ryan last September, the IRA has given a number of briefings that it was attempting to 'clean up' the organisation.
McNamee and the seven others were arrested last Friday after a search of a commercial premises in Clondalkin.
Trailer
In 2010, McNamee was sentenced to five years at Mountjoy Prison for drug-dealing.
In November 2009 at Trim Circuit Court, McNamee of Larkfield Square, Lucan, admitted having heroin for sale, which had been hidden behind a panel in a cattle trailer and was worth more than €100,000.
Gardai found more than 500g of diamorphine with a street value of about €101,000.
