TWO MEN are due to appear in court this morning to be charged with membership of the IRA following a Garda investigation into the Northern Bank raid in Belfast in which £26.5 million was stolen in December 2004.
Detectives in Cork investigating the laundering of money stolen in the Northern Bank raid arrested a 42-year-old man and a 62-year-old man in the Passage West area at about 5.30pm yesterday under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act for the purpose of being charged with an offence.
The two men – one of whom is from the Passage West area and the other who is from the Donnybrook area of Cork city – were brought to the Bridewell Garda station in Cork city and held there for a number of hours before being transferred to Dublin .
Security is expected to be tight when the two men are brought before the Special Criminal Court in Dublin this morning where they will be charged with membership of an illegal organisation, namely Oglaigh na hÉireann or the IRA.
The arrests come just weeks after Cork financial adviser, Ted Cunningham from Farran in Mid-Cork was sentenced to ten years in jail after he was convicted of laundering over £3 million.