Intelligence

Reputed IRA Chief Target of British Raids

Reputed IRA Chief Target of British Raids

By SHAWN POGATCHNIK
The Associated Press
Thursday, October 6, 2005; 3:50 PM

DUBLIN, Ireland -- British detectives raided businesses and homes in England on Thursday in hopes of discovering a paper trail that could lead to the reputed chief of the Irish Republican Army.

For three decades, anti-terrorist police have monitored and arrested Thomas "Slab" Murphy but never charged him with a crime.

Police identify him as a multimillionaire fuel smuggler and the chief of staff of the outlawed IRA. Anti-racketeering agencies in the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland say they suspect Murphy has built a massive portfolio of stocks and property.

On Thursday, the United Kingdom Assets Recovery Agency _ a two-year-old unit armed with powers to seize the cash, homes, cars and investments of members of Northern Ireland's myriad paramilitary groups _ announced it was investigating a property portfolio in Manchester, in northwest England, that involves about 250 residences and businesses worth an estimated $55 million.

Police, led by Belfast detectives and anti-racketeering inspectors, carted out records from a company called the Craven Group in the southwest Manchester suburb of Sale. They also searched the high-security mansion of Irish-born businessman Dermot Craven, whose company includes Craven Properties Ltd., a property rental agency, and Craven Scaffolding.

A British detective, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation, said several months of digging into Murphy's dealings had led them to Craven. He said Murphy was suspected of buying dozens of properties through intermediaries since 2002.

The detective said tracing Murphy's holdings was difficult because of the fuel dealer's insistence on all-cash transactions involving friendly business intermediaries and no bank accounts. He said Murphy's name was not on any of the properties investigated.

Murphy has never given an interview and has rarely been photographed. An AP reporter who tried to visit his farm _ which lies half in the Republic of Ireland, half in Northern Ireland _ was prevented by an unidentified young man from doing so.

Murphy came into the public domain in 1985 when a British newspaper, The Sunday Times, published a major expose. Murphy sued for libel but lost twice, most recently in 1998, when a Dublin jury ruled Murphy was an IRA commander and border smuggler.

Fuel tankers still regularly trundle in and out of Murphy's farm, which the 1999 best seller "Bandit Country," by Toby Harnden, said includes an underground pipeline for transferring fuel across the border. Today, fuel purchased in the south is sold in Northern Ireland, often in gas stations owned by IRA members, for about 30 percent more.

In the 1980s and 1990s, customs officials investigated the fuel business, but their efforts to pursue Murphy for tax evasion failed, partly because he dissolved businesses once authorities targeted them.

Thursday's raids began hours before Sinn Fein, the IRA-linked party, met British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London for the first time since disarmament officials on Sept. 26 announced they had scrapped all the IRA's stockpiled weapons.

With IRA disarmament finally fading from the political agenda, the IRA's decades-long involvement in crime _ including bank robberies, smuggling and counterfeiting _ immediately rose as the next political stumbling block. Britain and Ireland have commissioned expert reports, to be published this month and in January, into IRA crime.

In Dublin, Irish Foreign Minister Michael McDowell said he could not comment on Murphy or the specifics of the ongoing operation. But he said Britain and Ireland, using the same powers of assets seizure pioneered against organized crime in the United States, were determined to impound "the massive portfolio of assets" from the IRA's criminal empire.

"There is a joint determination to ensure that the (Irish) border is not something behind which criminals can hide, or which they can use to their advantage by concealing assets abroad," McDowell said.

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On the Net:

Craven Properties, http://www.cravengroup.co.uk/

October 6, 2005 at 04:56 PM in IRA | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home