The immediate battle against the spread of infection has centred on restricting cross-Border smuggling in both directions, Garda sources said yesterday.
Petrol and diesel, fuel, cigarettes and tobacco, livestock and other products are illegally moved across the Border. The restrictions created by the Garda and Army roadblocks are stemming this illicit trade and have led to friction at checkpoints.
Because of the terrorist threat to the North's security forces, the RUC has refrained from inserting permanent checkpoints around the exclusion zone of the infected farm in Meigh, south Armagh.
The Government yesterday called on the Defence Forces to begin preparing for what may be its biggest peacetime deployment, the mobilisation of more than 4,000 soldiers to provide "aid to the civil authority". Unarmed soldiers will accompany gardai at 104 Border checkpoints.
A spokesman for the Defence Forces said normal training had stopped and movement had been restricted to one gate per military installation.
Soldiers will accompany gardai from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. on Border checkpoints. Cars driven through checkpoints on Border roads in Louth and Monaghan since the Garda operation began on February 21st have already injured two gardai.
Some movement through minor roads is being allowed, but any traffic which appears to have agricultural or haulage purposes is turned back and made to enter the Republic through 30 main routes where gardai are accompanied by Department of Agriculture staff.
Yesterday the Garda said 756 gardai were committed to the control of traffic movement arising from the crisis. The commitment was so far leading to an overtime bill already running at over £1 million per week and expected to rise significantly.
There has been concern about the response in the North. The RUC refrained from moving personnel into the area of south Armagh where the infection was first located. The force does not patrol in uniform or marked cars in the area because of the threat of attack from republicans terrorists.
