Northern Bank robbers 'still struggling to spend £26.5m'

Ten years on from one of the biggest bank robberies in British and Irish history the IRA gang responsible may still be struggling to spend some of the £26.5 million plundered in the Northern Bank heist, an expert in combating money laundering has said.

The sheer amount of cash lying in the vaults of the Belfast city centre bank shocked the Provisional movement and swamped its long-standing criminal structures to wash its dirty money, former Police Service of Northern Ireland senior commander Alan McQuillan said.