IRA bank money was for investment in Bulgaria

The IRA intended to use the proceeds of the £26.5 million Northern Bank robbery to buy a £15 million apartment block in Bulgaria and a quarry in the midlands for between €3 million and €4 million, The Irish Times has learned.

It also planned to buy a small bank in Bulgaria so it could create a reputable money trail there to launder its planned investment.

However, the plans were scuppered when a financial broker in Cork, who was allegedly laundering some of the money, was discovered in February 2005 with £2.3 million in his house believed to be from the robbery.

PSNI chief constable Hugh Orde has said he believes the IRA carried out the robbery. His views have been echoed by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell.

The investigation into the Cork laundering operation has now resulted in the Criminal Assets Bureau becoming involved in two of its biggest investigations.

One of these involves five key individuals who are believed to be the main players in a business empire in Leinster that was to be centrally involved in laundering the Northern Bank money. These targets, through pubs and hotels, have also played key roles in the financing of the IRA's terrorist campaign for almost 20 years.

They raised seed funding through Revenue offences in Britain in the 1980s which was transferred to Ireland via the Isle of Man. It was then used by the IRA to buy pubs in the Republic.

The investigation into these men is described as "massive" by Garda sources. Gardaí have visited Britain, the Isle of Man and Bulgaria trawling through financial records in an effort to piece together the IRA money trail.

One of the five was central to devising the pub investment and money-laundering scheme for the IRA 15 to 20 years ago and is believed to have been the organisation "chief financial strategist". Another has run some of the IRA's pubs in Dublin. All five have built considerable property-based personal wealth. It believes that some of these men were leaving IRA-owned pubs weekly with bags of cash takings.

A second investigation has also begun in recent months involving an Irish man who was involved in crime in the Republic in the 1980s. The man, who has links to a number of figures involved in the horseracing industry, left Ireland about 15 years ago.

He has since built up a property portfolio worth well in excess of €100 million in Britain, Spain, Cyprus, the US and Ireland. The bureau believes he has paid no tax here for 15 years. Its investigation has taken bureau officers to the four other jurisdictions where he has bought property.

The investigation into the Cork operation has resulted in the reopening of a number of cases conducted by the Garda's anti-racketeering division in the 1980s and 1990s into the IRA's pub portfolio.