IRA criminal activity - Sinn Féin criminality’s first casualty

THERE are lies, damned lies and then there is Sinn Féin propaganda that republicans cannot be involved in criminal activity.

The lie has finally been given to that self-serving brand of duplicity by today’s claim that the IRA is now “perhaps the most sophisticated organised criminal grouping to be found anywhere in Europe, possibly anywhere in the world”.

Significantly, this dramatic assertion is set against the ongoing probe into the multi-million Dublin robbery which gardaí believe was carried out either by criminal gangs, paramilitary subversives, or both.

No doubt because the latest allegation of criminality emanates from Northern Ireland Security Minister Ian Pearson, it will be dismissed by Sinn Féin on the grounds of political motivation.

But given the involvement of republicans in the murder of Robert McCartney and the €36 million Northern Bank heist, the party’s repeated protestations of innocence fly in the face of reality.

Just a few short months ago such claims would have been taken with a large grain of salt. Historically, Irish people had good reason not to trust British propaganda. The tables have now turned, however, and it is the word of Sinn Féin that is suspect.

Whether the party likes it or not, greater credence will now be attached to claims by the former head of the Special Branch in Belfast that the IRA has forged an alliance with a network of criminal gangs on the British mainland in a multi-million pound cigarette and fuel smuggling racket.

No longer will doubt be cast on the assertion that senior Provisionals developed links with British gangsters when they were doing time in high-security jails.

Nor will people question claims that the IRA is involved in laundering hundreds of millions of pounds, some of which has been reinvested in elaborate schemes to bring illicit fuel and tobacco into the UK, much of it originating in south Armagh.

British gangs were used as a distribution network for the duty-free sale of those illicit products.

So expert has the IRA become that they are technically equipped to ‘launder’ fuel on an industrial scale, removing marker dyes from low-tax diesel, intended for agricultural or central heating use, to allow it to be used illegally by road vehicles.

Delving deeper into criminality, the Provos allegedly control a bureau de change near the border, banking up to £250m (€360m) in suspect cash. Reportedly, some of that money was used as venture capital to fund criminal activities on a global basis.

The sheer scale of republican involvement in bogus fuel production was exposed last month when customs officials at Dublin docks intercepted fuel tankers bound for Liverpool disguised as trailers carrying Irish timber.

Republicans are now so involved in organised crime that those activities will not go away overnight.

Despite the excellent work of the gardaí, the customs and the police, neither the Irish nor British governments possesses a magic wand to make this brand of criminality disappear.

It is precisely because of IRA contempt for the rule of law that Sinn Féin leaders are being shunned at the White House, whereas the sisters and fiancée of Robert McCartney will be feted by President Bush at tomorrow’s St Patrick’s Day celebrations.

So powerful is the McCartney campaign for justice that Sinn Féin chief negotiator Martin McGuinness had the gall to warn them not to stray into politics.

It would be more in his line to warn republicans not to stray into crime.