McKevitt trial hears of plot to smuggle semtex in toy

An FBI agent claimed today he was asked by a senior dissident republican to post a teddy bear filled with semtex from the United States to a school in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal.

Mr David Rupert, the chief prosecution witness in the trial of alleged "Real IRA" leader Mr Michael McKevitt, said in the Special Criminal Court this morning he was also asked to insert detonation cords inside a child's skipping rope and detonators into a radio before smuggling them into Ireland.

He claimed he was asked to do this by Mr Joe O'Neill, a publican from Bundoran, who was described in court as a member of Republican Sinn Féin (RSF). RSF is the political wing of the Continuity IRA.

The court heard Mr O'Neill's sister was a teacher in the school and would pick up the packages. Mr Rupert said the request "extremely upset" him, and he never carried it out.

"It concerned me because I had to make a number of trips across the Atlantic," he said. "I was wondering how many fools were putting this stuff in luggage on the plane I was travelling on."

Mr Rupert, an FBI double agent, had befriended Mr O'Neill during a number of visits to Ireland in the 1990s. They developed a "teacher-pupil relationship" in relation to Irish republicanism.

He was subsequently asked by the FBI to work for them, spying on members of dissident republicans and their fundraising activities in the US.

Mr Rupert detailed how he had been given $8,500 by an FBI agent in Chicago in 1996 to help him secure the lease of a bar and caravan park in Co Leitrim.

He and his wife Maureen were to run the bar and use it as a cover for gathering information on republican activities. The Drowse Bar was frequented by "Provisional Sinn Féin supporters" from Belfast and Dungannon, Mr Rupert said. He came to regard the park as an "IRA theme park".

The bar had a large supply of kegs of beer that had been smuggled from Northern Ireland, Mr Rupert said. He could not get Guinness to take them back, so they were left lying around the premises. He claimed Mr O'Neill had asked him to put 10 or 12 of them aside. Mr O'Neill "made a gesture" that Mr Rupert told the court he understood to mean he wanted to use them for bomb cases.

He put them aside, but jotted down their serial numbers and gave the list to the FBI in case the kegs were ever used for criminal acts. The bar business collapsed, and the Ruperts returned to the US in September 1996.

Mr Rupert said he went back to the Drowse Bar in early 1997 and discovered a fuel-laundering business had been set up there by the leaseholder, Mr Michael McNulty. He "couldn't recall" if the kegs were still there, he told the court.

It was during this week-long visit that he was asked by Mr O'Neill to smuggle the explosives into Ireland.

Mr Rupert also described how he had been at a Republican Sinn Féin fundraising event in a pub in Dublin at Christmas 1994. He said Mr O'Neill was handed an envelope full of cash by a US supporter.

He was asked to carry the money, as Mr O'Neill was concerned he would not be able to explain away having the US currency if he was stopped by the gardaí, while Mr Rupert would. The witness said he went into the toilet and "tore open the corner of the envelope" to check it was cash.

Today is the fourth day of the trial of Mr McKevitt (53), Beech Park, Blackrock, Co Louth, who has pleaded not guilty to two charges of membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Óglaigh na hÉireann, otherwise the IRA, between August 29th, 1999 and March 28th, 2001; and to directing the activities of the same organisation between March 29th, 1999. and October 23rd, 2000.

The trial continues this afternoon.