A Florida judge yesterday sentenced three Irish people to federal prison for their part in a plot to smuggle high-powered weapons to Ireland through the US mail.
After a testy five-week trial in April, the three men were convicted of purchasing and illegally shipping scores of handguns and ammunition from Fort Lauderdale to Ireland and the UK.
But Conor Claxton, Martin Mullan and Anthony Smyth were cleared of the most serious and controversial charges, conspiracy to commit murder and maim in Northern Ireland and providing material support to terrorists.
Claxton, an admitted IRA member who prosecutors called the operation's ringleader, was sentenced yesterday to four years and eight months in federal prison.
Mullan and Smyth both received prison sentences of three years. Smyth was also fined $6,100.
Judge Wilkie Ferguson said that although he believed the men should have received longer prison terms, he was bound by restrictive federal sentencing guidelines.
"If in a crack cocaine case a person can get a life sentence for possessing $400 worth of cocaine, this kind of offence ought to be a death penalty," Judge Ferguson said. Another defendant in the case, Dublin-born Siobhan Browne, was sentenced to 20 months in August after pleading guilty to conspiracy to illegally purchasing weapons.
The four defendants were arrested in July last year after federal investigators uncovered what they described as a complex plot to ship arms to the IRA.
Handguns and ammunition, including sniper bullets, were packed into parcels disguised with toys and electronic equipment.
The trial stirred controversy in Northern Ireland as unionist politicians questioned the validity of the IRA ceasefire. An FBI agent testified that Claxton, who is from Belfast, told investigators he worked for the Provisional IRA and that the weapons would be used against the RUC and British army.
Claxton said he had also worked as an international representative of Sinn Fein.
Prosecutors painted a picture of a professional IRA cell with Claxton directing, Mullan purchasing packages and toys to disguise the weapons, and Smyth and Browne buying the arms. But the jury rejected the indictment.