Four Northern Ireland men arrested in Co Monaghan earlier this month were members of a Real IRA active service unit preparing to commit serious crime, the Special Criminal Court heard today.

A Wexford man was today jailed for four years by the Special Criminal Court in Dublin for membership of an illegal organisation.

The Special Criminal Court has ordered that convicted drugs dealer John Gilligan should pay more than €17m within a year after finding that he had benefited from importing 17,500 kilos of cannabis into the country over a two-year period.

The Special Criminal Court today cancelled an arrest warrant for the Belfast man who died after shooting himself in a garda station last month.