Undercover agent risked life for years to catch Campbell

THE conviction of Michael Campbell in a Lithuanian court yesterday marks the end of an international “sting” involving the police and security services of three nations.

Operation Uncritical thwarted an attempt by the Real IRA to acquire guns and explosives, which security services believe would have been used to mount a terror campaign in Northern Ireland and on the British mainland.

At its heart was a courageous undercover agent who for years risked his life to provide his MI5 handlers with intelligence about the activities of dissident republicans’ plans. The agent, who was referred to in court as “Robert Jardine”, was a businessman based in southern England dealing in imports and exports.

But he also had an illicit sideline in smuggling cigarettes from Eastern Europe — and it was that which caught the eye of the security service and led him into a dangerous world of terrorist intrigue.

The Real IRA (RIRA) was using the lucrative trade in contraband cigarettes to fund its terrorist activities and, in late 2002, Jardine was recruited as an agent by MI5 with a view to disrupting their operations.

Two years later however, the case unexpectedly took on a new dimension when RIRA asked Jardine whether his contacts in eastern Europe could help them acquire weapons.

Over the next 18 months — carefully directed by MI5 — Jardine began to lay the trail of deception which drew in the terrorists.

The court was told that in January 2005 he handed over a price list, written in Cyrillic script, to a contact. The following July, Jardine and the contact went to Lithuania, where he introduced her to his weapons man — “Tomas”.

Tomas was working for the Lithuanian security service, the VSD — the first of the “role-players” deployed to convince the RIRA that the offer of weapons was real. The RIRA responded by presenting Jardine with the first of two handwritten shopping lists of weapons they wanted to buy. However, with no further follow-up from the RIRA, the operation appeared to have run into the sand.

In late 2006, in a further twist, another RIRA man, Seamus McGreevy (who has since died), moved to revive the arrangement. The “sting” was back on.

Throughout his dealings with the RIRA, Jardine was left in no doubt that he would pay with his life if his true role was discovered. On one occasion, he was taken to meet some leading RIRA figures in Armagh. After being transferred from one car to another, he came to the vehicle intended to take him to his final destination — a blacked out van.

He saw that the van’s interior was lined with bubble wrap while lying on the floor was a shovel.

Jardine was convinced that he was being taken to dig his own grave — in fact it was a gruesome test of his nerve.

It was around this time that Michael Campbell entered the story. He was chosen by the RIRA to go the Baltic state to meet Tomas.

On August 29, 2007, Campbell and another alleged RIRA associate travelled to a lodge deep in the Lithuanian countryside belonging to the supposed arms dealer. There they were given their first chance to test some of the guns and explosives. The next day they were introduced to a second dealer — whom they nicknamed “Rambo” — who was to provide them with weapons. Like Tomas, Rambo was working for the VSD.

After a demonstration of firepower, Campbell and his colleague were hooked, agreeing to pay a €5,000 deposit on a consignment, including explosives, detonators and timers.

That October, Campbell met Rambo again in Marbella in Spain. This time the RIRA man said he wanted to take delivery of a first installment of weapons against the €5,000 deposit.

On January 21, 2008, Campbell travelled out to Lithuania with his wife to inspect his purchase and finalise the arrangements. The following day, Rambo took Campbell to a lock-up garage where the weapons were stashed.

A hidden camera secretly filmed the encounter, as Campbell examines one of the detonators and asks whether they would be “good for booby traps”.

Campbell was also filmed paying a further €1,000 deposit for a powerful sniper rifle.

When Rambo demands what it would be used for — saying he was not prepared to sell it “to shoot roe deer or wild boar” — Campbell tells him: “No, no, we will be shooting from across borders. The border.”

Asked who the target would be, Campbell replies simply “Brits”. Campbell is then induced by another role-player to admit he is with the IRA. The sting was complete and the trap was sprung with Campbell’s arrest.