Police smash IRA spy ring

IRA intelligence-gathering in Belfast has been smashed open by one of the biggest police investigations in Northern Ireland in the last decade, it was claimed last night.

Senior detectives probing the alleged republican spy ring inside the Government said they had breached the inner sanctums of the movement.

As a Stormont civil servant questioned in connection with the inquiry was suspended on full pay, the scale of the anti-terrorist operation was laid bare.

Acting deputy chief constable Alan McQuillan declared: “The investigation has taken us in to the heart of the IRA. We have broken up their intelligence cell in Belfast.”

About 40 detectives have been assigned to Operation Hezz after raids on republican homes in West Belfast last month which led to four people, including Sinn Féin’s administrative chief at Parliament Buildings, Dennis Donaldson, being charged over an alleged espionage plot inside the Northern Ireland office.

The team has also been investigating a break-in at Special Branch offices inside Castlereagh police complex in east Belfast on St Patrick’s night, which is also being blamed on the IRA.

But with the arrest and subsequent release without charge last week of a man who worked at former First Minister David Trimble’s private office, the focus has been firmly on republican activity at Stormont.

Mr McQuillan said: “We are very conscious that some people working within government who are decent, honest people may well have been approached and may well have had pressure put on them to provide information.”

After hundreds of documents and computer disks were seized during initial raids last month, police discovered the names of about 2,000 people, including forensic scientists and police, who have since been warned to step up their personal security.