Gardaí arrested a man in his 20s in Passage West, Co Cork this evening after reports he was attempting to burn sterling notes.
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| Gardaí remove over £2 million sterling from a house in Farran, Co Cork this morning |
He is the eighth person to be questioned as part of the massive Garda operation against money laundering allegedly involving the Provisional IRA.
Seven people were arrested in Cork and Dublin over the last two days and £2.3 million sterling recovered. Some £60,000 of this was in Northern Bank notes. Tonight five people remain in custody under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.
It is believed some of the money may be part of the £26.5 million haul taken from the Northern Bank in Belfast before Christmas, blamed on the IRA.
Gardai said this evening they would not be disclosing any more detail of the investigation which they described as "extremely complex".
Earlier Garda Commissioner Mr Noel Conroy said the money-laundering operation had a "subversive involvement". He said hundreds of gardaí were working on the operation and that huge amounts of documents, computers and a vast amount bank notes were being examined.
Seventeen bags of cash were taken from a house in Farran, a few miles outside Cork city, where most of the Garda inquiries are centred. The money was driven away in a Garda vehicle accompanied by an escort of two detectives carrying sub-machine guns.
"There are lots of lines of inquiry. We are dealing with matters in this jurisdiction but may also travel overseas as part of our investigations," Mr Conroy said.
He declined to say whether it was yet possible to link the sterling seized in Cork with the £26.5 million stolen from the Northern Bank in Belfast just before Christmas.
"PSNI officers are coming to Dublin later today and we will discuss the sums recovered, and something may follow from that."
He said other sums of money were also being followed with the assistance of the banking system.
"People may have, unwittingly, large sums of sterling and we're investigating them. We would urge them to come forward," he said.
He confirmed that £175,000 sterling had been handed into Anglesea Garda Station in Cork by a man who claimed he had been given it by the businessman at the centre of the money laundering investigation.
Asked if he was stigmatising a political party like Sinn Féin, Mr Conroy replied: "It is not my role to hone in on any political party. If we have detained an individual, whatever their job or political affiliation, it is our job to get evidence," he said.
The Garda Commissioner confirmed that one of the people arrested as part of their investigations, is "actively involved in Sinn Féin".
Speaking earlier today, the Sinn Féin President, Mr Gerry Adams, who will fly back from the Basque country this eveing, said he was very concerned but cautioned against rushing to judgment.
"I do think it is a serious situation. Of course I'm concerned I'm actually flying back to try and get a handle on all of this. I've asked for a report," he told RTÉ radio.
"At the moment I would urge people just to be measured . . . not to be judgmental about all of this . . . I can tell you categorically that the Sinn Féin organisation is not involved. I can tell you that without question.
"The Minister for Justice quite recently said to myself and Martin McGuinnness that 96 per cent of the members of Sinn Fein have no connection with the IRA. Its a nonsense to think that I as party leader go running off to get permission or am directed by the IRA in what I should or shouldn't do," he said.