Gardaí have handed over an extensive file to the Director of Public Prosecutions as part of their investigation into the suspected money-laundering of almost £5 million (€7.3 million) by the Provisional IRA following the Northern Bank raid, The Irish Times has learned.
The file on Operation Phoenix, with close to 400 statements, was completed within days of the first anniversary of the discovery on February 17th, 2005, of £2.4 million at the home of a financial adviser in Farran in Co Cork, when Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) detectives and other local officers carried out a search of the premises.
Gardaí believe the £2.4 million they found there was part of a £4.9 million share of the Northern Bank raid proceeds sent to Cork by the Provisional IRA for laundering through various schemes.
Last October, Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy gave a joint press conference with PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde, at which he said he was satisfied the money recovered in Co Cork was the proceeds of the Provisional IRA robbery of the Northern Bank.
Commissioner Conroy, visiting Cork this weekend, had said from the outset the investigation would take thousands of man-hours. Up to 100 gardaí were involved.
Follow-up raids netted a further £605,000 which gardaí believe is part of £1 million the financial adviser had managed to disperse prior to his premises being raided. This money included some £230,000 given to a local republican, gardaí believe.
Officers believe this republican also collected a further £1.5 million from the financial adviser for further dispersal but, when news of the Garda raid in Farran broke on February 17th, 2005, this activist gave the money to another man for safekeeping.
However, when this other man learned of the Garda raids and investigation, he panicked and proceeded to burn the £1.5 million in the fireplace of his home in the Cork Harbour area on the night of February 18th, 2005.
Detectives from Cab also seized documents and computers from a business premises in Ballincollig and carried out further raids on a firm of solicitors in Cork city and an accountants office in east Cork.