Extortion, robbery and drug trafficking... the real stock in trade of terror gangs who won’t admit the war is over

Drug dealers are increasing their trade to meet protection payments demanded by dissident republicans.

The claim was made in a weekend briefing by senior republican sources — who said they wanted to “lift the lid” on the groups.

It was claimed that in one case a criminal paid £90,000 to the Continuity IRA after 120 kilos of drugs were imported — drugs that had originated from a member of the dissident republican organisation based in Spain.

This man was named in the briefing, and reporters were told the police had the details of the case.

Other dissident organisations including the Real IRA, Oglaigh na hEireann and the INLA were accused of a range of criminal activities including extortion, robberies and involvement in punishment shootings over personal disputes.

The groups were accused of using republican titles as a “facade” to try to hide their criminality.

“You have groupings using republican clothes to carry out criminality,” one of the senior sources said.

He said republicans wanted to “bring a focus to this — bring it into the public arena, to get the community to stand up and to challenge it”.

“We are looking to de-mystify it? so we can address it as criminality? This is a straightforward criminal matter,” he said.

Another source said: “We are trying to create a context in which co-operation (with the PSNI) improves and increases in the period ahead.”

Another of the men involved in the briefing said: “There is no other way of dealing with it.”

That briefing in west Belfast at the weekend follows recent public comments by Sinn Fein president Gerry

Adams on an “increase in criminal actions by a number of organised criminal gangs who claim to be republican organisations”.

“Their actions are not about furthering the republican goals,” he continued.

“On the contrary they tarnish the name of Irish republicanism and seek only to further the self-interest of those involved.”

That point was re-emphasised at the weekend, with one source saying the activities were not about “prosecuting a struggle”, but were “creating a fear of criminality” in republican communities.

Asked if the dissidents had been involved in any of the recent ‘tiger kidnappings’, one source responded: “It’s on the ground out there in terms of rumour”. But he said he had nothing more to add at this stage.

He said the activities of the dissidents were reaching “levels of serious concern”. “There is a new fear, a volatility? the criminal objective is the only guideline in this,” he added.

Analysis

_{By Brian Rowan}

The briefing carries all the weight of senior republican sources — and it is a planned follow-up to the recent public naming and shaming of the dissidents groups.

Gerry Adams’ intervention a couple of weeks ago was a political condemnation of the criminal activities of dissidents.

And this briefing was about colouring in the picture — adding detail in terms of specific cases such as the “licensing” of drug dealers, the demanding of money for protection.

What is being talked about now is a political, community, statutory agencies and police response as a “challenge” to the dissidents.

The weekend news in relation to those dissidents was about the bomb discovered in Castlewellan after a security operation that began on Tuesday. Another bomb that did not reach its target, and another bomb that failed to explode.

It is one of the patterns in dissident activity — bombs abandoned and bombs that are intercepted.

What all of this explains is the degree of infiltration, how much these groups are compromised from within, and how much is known about them as a result of surveillance and listening and observation.

According to that weekend briefing the bombs are part of the “facade”, a false front giving a war impression to hide something else.

Behind that image or “veneer” is the criminality that is now being detailed publicly and privately by sources from inside the mainstream republican movement.

It is not just a Belfast problem. “These are organisations across the island,” one source commented.

“It (the criminality) is characteristic of them across the board — it’s often leadership driven.”

Known criminals are now operating as members of dissident groups.

The recruitment practice was described at the weekend in the language of: “Do you want to join?

“See you tomorrow night at seven o’clock.”

“There is an acceptance by us that there are people involved in these organisations who are republican,” a source commented.

“So part of the purpose of this also is to try to get them, to persuade them, to stand up against this (criminality) in the organisations or leave them.”

There is also a wider purpose to the Adams intervention and to the weekend briefing.

It is the community being told from the very top of the Republican Movement that it is okay to talk to the police about this — that it is okay to provide information.

The message is that this is not touting, or informing or any betrayal of republicanism.

It is also an indication of how co-operation is starting to build between the republican community and the police — a making of a new way.

The dissidents did not respond to the recent Adams commentary and that is interesting.

“It’s a measure of how uncomfortable these organisations are,” one republican source commented.

What is making them uncomfortable is how they are now being addressed — not as republicans but as criminals.

That is the purpose in this lifting of the lid.