Three held after cross-Border smuggling raids
Two men and a woman were held for questioning as police seized cash, cigarettes, fuel and weapons in a series of raids on properties in north Louth and south Armagh.
Security sources confirmed the offensive against organised crime, which also involved money laundering, was one of the biggest ever mounted, following months of planning by detectives in Belfast and Dublin.
One source said: “This is as big as it gets.”
Murphy, the one-time alleged IRA chief of staff, already under investigation by Britain’s Assets Recovery Agency (ARA), probing house sales in Manchester, was not detained.
But his house in Hackballscross, Co Louth, straddling the Border, was among a total of 15 residential and business properties searched.
As well as taking over €204,000 in mixed currencies, gardaí recovered 30,000 cigarettes and 8,000 litres of fuel.
More than 30 archive boxes of documents, three tankers and a truck with a fourth tanker concealed inside were also impounded.
Two shotguns and ammunition were found, while computers and separate hard drives have been taken for examination.
An oil laundering unit was also seized, Garda Superintendent Kevin Donohoe disclosed.
He said: “At this stage what we are looking at is a serious organised crime operation on both sides of the Border.”
The three arrested, a man and woman in their early 50s and a second man aged in his 60s, were taken to garda stations in Drogheda and Kells for questioning.
Police, customs and excise, and officials from the Criminal Assets Bureau in Dublin were all involved in the operation, backed up by soldiers.
Garda teams specialising in criminal and fraud investigations led the dawn raids, resulting in all routes leading up to Murphy’s sprawling farmland estate being closed off.
Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officers, armed with rifles and submachine guns, patrolled roads to the North, with helicopters scanning the area from overhead.
Neighbours refused to speak about the operation surrounding the veteran republican’s home.
About 120 gardaí took part in the raids, which Supt Donohoe said were not linked to any current paramilitary organisation.
But he said: “We are in the middle of an investigation and the road will take us where it takes us.”
The intelligence-led operation also involved officers from the PSNI’s Crime Operations Department and its district command units in Newry, Mourne and Armagh.
Belfast customs and 25 customs officials from the Republic were drafted in.
Nine of the properties searched were south of the Border, while the PSNI trawled six locations in Crossmaglen and Keady in Co Armagh.
They made no arrests but served production orders linked to an audit trail on a number of businesses.
Yesterday’s seizures were not thought to be linked to the ARA’s inquiries in Manchester last October. At the time Murphy said he did not own any properties and insisted he made his living from farming.
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