Special branch probes extends to US

Detectives investigating the raid on Special Branch offices at Northern Ireland’s most secure police station have extended their inquiries to the United States, it was confirmed this evening.

As a man arrested by police investigating the break-in at the Castlereagh complex was remanded in custody, senior security sources insisted they were increasingly certain the IRA stole top-secret security files.

But with inside assistance suspected, officers are working with the FBI to question an ex-employee of the east Belfast station.

‘‘There are people who have gone out to the US and they are liaising with the FBI,’’ one source said.

The development came as police on the inquiry seized items during further searches on houses in nationalist parts of the city.

Earlier John O’Hagan, 29, appeared in court accused of possessing information likely to be useful to terrorists planning an act of violence.

The materials did not relate to documents stolen from Castlereagh.

The unemployed man from Lepper Street in Belfast was one of six people seized by police during a series of swoops in a dramatic development which saw the Provisionals linked to the security breach.

Leading Belfast republican ex-prisoner Bobby Storey was among the other five arrested and later released without charge.

Sinn Fein has angrily rejected any IRA involvement, but security sources were adamant the paramilitaries were responsible.

‘‘They did the same thing over Colombia,’’ one said.

‘‘They maybe didn’t think we would make the connection as quickly as we have made it.’’

But he added: ‘‘Some kind of internal help was needed to do this.’’

Officers from the police team want to question a man who once worked in the kitchen area at Castlereagh but has since left for the US.

O’Hagan, an unemployed man from Lepper Street in Belfast, smiled and waved at friends as he appeared before the city’s magistrates court.

It is understood officers who searched his home took away a computer and disks, files and other documents.

Although he denies the charge, a detective inspector from Castlereagh police station told the court he believed he could connect him with it.

He was remanded in custody until May 1.

Highly sensitive files on Special Branch informers and their police handlers were snatched during the St Patrick’s night infiltration last month.

An independent inquiry ordered by Northern Ireland secretary John Reid has been launched amid fears for national security.

But it was the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) who made the six arrests on Saturday following a series of searches of houses in Belfast and Londonderry.

Shadowy intelligence agencies had initially been suspected of carrying out the daring raid which saw the intruders by-pass security with forged military passes.

The small first-floor office, regarded as a crucial hub for Special Branch operations, had been moved just days before three men broke in, overpowered a lone officer and rifled through files and drawers.

O’Hagan was charged just hours before a special extension granted by a judge to enable detectives to continue questioning him expired.

The court heard he made no reply when officers accused him of the offence.

But his solicitor indicated he would be applying to the High Court for bail.

Referring to O’Hagan, the lawyer said: ‘‘He has asked me to inform the court that he is strenuously denying the charge.’’

As he was being remanded police mounted new searches on homes in nationalist areas of north Belfast.

‘‘As a result of planned searches of the New Lodge and Edenderry areas, police have seized a number of items,’’ a police spokesman confirmed.

‘‘These searches are part of ongoing investigations including inquiries into the Castlereagh break-in.’’

The first house to be searched belonged to a woman with two teenage children. Police officers removed children’s clothing and computer disks.

Sinn Fein councillor Margaret McClenaghan accused police of mounting a concerted vendetta against Catholics in the area.

She said: ‘‘As loyalists attack nationalist homes, the PSNI attack nationalists on the one hand and terrorise families by raiding their houses on the other hand.’’