LONDON: The government's Assets Recovery Agency searched more than 250 properties in Manchester on suspicion that these were financed by people linked to the IRA. The agency stated it had uncovered a portfolio comprising 250 properties worth 30 million pounds held by two men. It refused to give details or identity of the men under investigation or comment on the IRA link.
A statement issued by the agency said the searches were carried out on domestic and business properties associated with two Manchester-based businessmen. Several documents had been seized in the search, which had been approved by the high court in London.
According to people in the know, the agency has been inquiring into the antecedents of Thomas 'Slab' Murphy, a known IRA leader, and another businessman. They said the inquiries centred on the headquarters of Craven Property Group in Sale, south of Manchester.
The agency is constituted under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to coordinate activities across the U.K. in recovering unlawfully obtained assets from those with no right to hold them.
The operation was carried out even as Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and Protestant leader Rev Ian Paisley were to meet prime minister Tony Blair in London. The IRA is also known to have destroyed its weapons arsenal. However, the government seems to be taking stern action, possibly to send a signal that it is cracking down on the paramilitary organisation's extensive criminal and money-laundering network, considered to be responsible for the 26 million pound robbery at the Northern Bank in Belfast in December.
Murphy, who is said to be the target, is a South Armagh farmer, who had become prominent in 1998 in the suit he filed against Sunday Times newspaper, which wrote about his involvement in IRA bombings in Britain. He lost the case.
He has a farm at Hackballscross, touching the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
Posted
on : Fri, 07 Oct 2005 08:25 GMT | General News
By : Mark Richardson
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