Stolen cash found in police club as Sinn Fein is tainted by IRA scandals

[struggle4progress]

20 February 2005

Fifty-thousand pounds of the haul from Belfast's multi-million-pound bank robbery have turned up in a city police sports and social club following a mysterious tip-off ­ yet another twist in a drama that has left Sinn Fein and the IRA in crisis.

Five packages, each containing £10,000, were found on Friday in the club toilet. Yesterday it was confirmed that the cash had formed part of the £26m stolen from the Northern Bank in Belfast in December. <snip>

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/ulster/story.jsp?story=612884


Northern Ireland Police Find More Money From $51 Mln Bank Heist

<snip> ``This incident is an effort to distract the police investigating the Northern Bank robbery and also to divert attention from events elsewhere,'' a police spokeswoman said on the department's automated press phone line. <snip>

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000085&sid=aP7l8sS9frGw&refer=europe


Trail of burnt notes leads to IRA

<snip> On Friday afternoon burning bank notes were carried out of the garden by the wind. <snip>

Catching one of the notes, an alert neighbour took it to the Anglesea Garda station at teatime. When police with Uzis stormed into the suburban garden they found a man in his mid-forties tossing more notes from the Northern Bank raid onto a little bonfire. Detectives searching the house discovered 30 .76 mm bullets, ammunition for an AK47, the favoured weapon of the Provisional IRA.

The arrest of Bonfire Man was a lucky break but others were being pulled in as part of a massive operation on both sides of the border aimed not only at finding those behind the Northern Bank raid, but at smashing the Provisional IRA's entire financing system. Cork chef Don Bullman, would be arrested in a car outside a Dublin train station with £54,000 hidden inside a box of washing powder, and charged on Friday night with IRA membership. Although described in court as a dissident, it emerged that in 1999 Bullman had worked for Sinn Fein in Cork selling raffle tickets to raise funds. <snip>

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/northernirelandassembly/story/0,9061,1418665,00.html


Bulgarian arms dealer sparked IRA probe

<snip> Detectives allege that investments in the Bulgarian's property developments were linked to the money-laundering scheme. <snip>

http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqid=2536-qqqx=1.asp


A whole lot of attention-grabbing "color" for a bank robbery ...

[Bridget Burke]

1. That crafty IRA....

Cleverly sneaking into the police social club to hide their ill-gotten gains. How else could the money have gotten there?

And the two named men who were questioned do have some ties to the IRA. Of course, they were released.

The obvious conclusion is that Sinn Fein must be discredited. Eventually, some real evidence will turn up. Perhaps.