FBI agent David Rupert, the chief witness in the trial of alleged "Real IRA" leader Michael Mc Kevitt, was picked up by police in Alabama and questioned about having a runaway 15 year old girl in his truck, the Special Criminal Court heard today.
The court heard that in 1976, Mr Rupert and another driver were driving across the United States when they picked up two underage girls at Fort Worth in Texas. They were stopped by state troopers in Phoenix City, Alabama, handcuffed, taken to the police station and questioned on suspicion of having sex with a minor.
Cross examined by Mr Hugh Hartnett SC, defending, Mr Rupert denied lying to the court when he said he was arrested only twice in his life, both incidents in relation to bad cheques. He denied he was "arrested" on this occasion, saying the term arrested had a different meaning in the United States than in Ireland.
He admitted being picked up by the Alabama police and questioned about having an underage girl in his car. "The charge would have been white slavery if there had been anything to it," he added. "But that's not an arrest."
"You were handcuffed, brought to the police station and questioned?" counsel asked. "Yes", Mr Rupert replied but again denied being "arrested". "Can I suggest to you that you are lying?", counsel asked. "No," the witness replied.
Mr Rupert said the other driver picked the two girls up. Mr Hartnett put it to Mr Rupert that he gave the details of this incident to two journalists as recently as last May. He put it to the witness that he told the journalists that one of the girls was "offloaded" on to another truck and the second girl was kept in Rupert's truck for a week.
Mr Rupert said the other driver had picked up both girls who were runaways from a children's home, and was sleeping with the second girl aged 15, but that he [Rupert] had not. He said the only thing he was interested in was keeping his job as he had a wife and stepson.
He said he told the Alabama police that the girls were picked up at Fort Worth, Texas, but admitted he failed to inform the trooper that the 15-year-old girl had been in the truck for a week before being stopped in Alabama. Mr Hartnett said that the girl was later taken into care.
Earlier, Mr Rupert told the court that he scouted the US/Mexican border as a possible entry point to the United States for Mr McKevitt.
Mr Rupert said Mr Mc Kevitt wanted to get into the United States and he went to El Paso in Texas to video US customs arrangements there.
"One of his [Mc Kevitt's] plans was that he was going to Mexico with his wife and kids on holiday and he could come into the US from there," he said.
Mr Rupert also said that he went to El Paso in 1999 or in spring 2000 to investigate the possibility of using Mexico as "an export route" to take arms from the US in containers and send them to Ireland.
He said that at the direction of McKevitt he went to El Paso with a video camera, walked over the bridge and took a video of the customs procedures.
"I did this with the full knowledge of the FBI and the British Security Service [MI5] and was reimbursed with expenses by the FBI and the BSS," he added.
Mr Rupert told Mr Hartnett that he has visited El Paso about half a dozen times over thirty years but he denied that he was involved in cross border smuggling between Mexico and the US.
Mr Rupert said he was aware that onions were trucked from Texas to the northern states. But he denied knowing anything about "onions, marijuana and the Mexican border."
"I was not involved in any smuggling along any of the borders. I don't know anything about onions and marijuana," he said.
It was the fourteenth day of the trial of Mr Michael Mc Kevitt (53) of Beech Park, Blackrock, Dundalk, Co Louth who denies membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise the IRA, otherwise Oglaigh na hEireann between August 29th, 1999 and March 28th, 2001. He also denies directing the activities of the same organisation.
Mr Rupert (51) a former trucking company boss and bar owner, has told the court that he infiltrated dissident republican groups for the FBI and the British Security Service [MI5].
The court has heard that Mr Rupert was paid $1.25 million for his work.