The US government will seek the extradition of Workers' Party president, Seán Garland, from the Republic of Ireland if he cannot be returned to Northern Ireland, a spokesman for the US attorney's office in Washington has said.
Mr Garland announced yesterday that he has fled to the Republic to avoid extradition proceedings on charges of distributing millions of counterfeit dollars on behalf of the North Korean government.
The US attorney's office in Washington, which has indicted Mr Garland on conspiracy charges, said that it will be meeting with the justice department's office of international affairs, which handles extradition cases, to decide how best to have Mr Garland extradited to the US.
A spokesman for the office, who was meeting with justice department officials on a separate issue yesterday, said that he did not want to pre-empt any outcome but said it was likely that fresh extradition proceedings will begin in the Republic if Irish authorities do not return Mr Garland to Northern Ireland.
The case will likely be handled by justice department senior attorney, Tressa Borland, who deals with extradition proceedings with the Republic and has recently made very critical comments to prosecutors and to the Irish Department of Justice about the Republic's lack of co-operation on extradition proceedings.
Jonathan Cherry, a spokesman for the secret service, which investigated the Garland case and handed it over to the US attorney's office, said the investigation into Mr Garland and his associates remained ongoing and would not be affected by his decision to stay in the Republic.
He said Mr Garland's extradition was a matter for the US attorney's office.
The secret service is investigating five associates of the Workers' Party president for alleged involvement in smuggling millions of counterfeit dollars.
The notes were dubbed "supernotes" by the US secret service because of their remarkably high quality and were created by the North Korean government as a way of generating foreign currency.
Along with Mr Garland, the attorney's office is seeking a Dublin associate, Christie John Corcoran (57), as well as an Irish counterfeit dealer, three British criminals and a former KGB agent.
US attorney Kenneth Wainstein claimed in the indictment that the IRA was behind the day-to-day running of the operation.