A German spy thought to have been co-ordinated by the British intelligence agency MI5 carried out an operation against the INLA in the Republic, according to a British newspaper report today.
A number of meetings were said to have taken place between the agent and members of the INLA in Dundalk, Co Louth, in the mid-1990s. The German agent who appeared to be working closely with the British military intelligence agency MI5 infiltrated the INLA to lure its then chief of staff Hugh Torney to Germany to buy Semtex explosive.
However, following the capture of Torney and an accomplice as a result of the operation, German police set him free, deciding they had insufficient evidence to detain him, according to the report in British newspaper The Times.
Torney was lured to Germany after the German agent offered to find a safe house in a small town near Stuttgart. The agent accompanied Torney (40), and an accomplice to Pilsen in the Czech Republic where, according to the report, they met a man who was to supply the Semtex. A third party then arranged to take the Semtex back to Ireland.
Shortly afterwards Torney was arrested by heavily armed police at Stuttgart railway station. However, the police decided they had insufficient evidence against the men and put them on a train bound for France.
Over the following two years Torney was involved in bomb and gun attacks before being killed in an internal INLA feud.