IRA financed by illicit fuel

OIL laundering plants seized last year by customs were capable of producing up to 30 million litres of fuel per year.

The illicit fuel was worth more than €20m in petrol stations in Northern Ireland - and would have earned paramilitary and criminal organisations tens of millions of euro profit.

The scale of the seizures - outlined in the Revenue Commissioners 2002 Annual Report - underline the booming and lucrative trade in illegal fuel, largely controlled by paramilitary groupings.