Secret meetings with North Korean spies, the best counterfeit money ever seen, a Marxist conspiracy to destabilise the US economy, bag loads of cash smuggled on the Holyhead ferry, the KGB, the Russian mafia, Latvian go betweens, fake IDs, the Official IRA, innocents duped into carrying illegal currency, the US secret service, the London underworld, writes Sean O'Driscoll

The case against Workers' Party president Seán Garland and six others accused of dealing in counterfeit money reads like a bad airport novel. But according to a newly unsealed indictment, the case, officially known as "The United States of America v Seán Garland, aka The Man With The Hat" is based on years of secret surveillance by the US secret service and their British counterparts and involves tens of millions in counterfeit dollars.

The US announced last week that it wants to extradite three Irishmen, three Britons and an Armenian on federal conspiracy charges and names Garland and a Dublin political ally, Christie Corcoran (57), as major figures in the plot.

It also lists dozens of locations and dates for the alleged conspiracy, including more than 15 trips made on the Holyhead ferry by couriers carrying bag loads of money to pay Garland for counterfeit currency.

The origins of the case are in 1989, when the US secret service, which investigates all dollar counterfeits, noticed very high quality fake $100 dollar bills in circulation.

The Americans eventually traced the notes back to a government laboratory and printing press in North Korea. The North Korean economy was being crippled by sanctions and the government urgently needed foreign currency, while at the same time hoping to destabilise the US dollar by flooding the international market with fakes.

Eventually, these notes were spread out to Marxist-leaning groups around the world with the hope that they could sell them on.

Seán Garland came to the Americans' attention in the early 1990s, when the first 'supernotes' appeared on Dublin streets. After the secret service were notified by the US embassy, they moved quickly to stop the trade and soon Dublin banks and money exchanges refused to exchange $100 bills.

The Americans got a big break in 1993, when a then 56-year-old Irish counterfeit trader named Hugh Todd, formerly of South Africa, was spotted exchanging the notes in British banks and was holding a bundle of fake notes when he was arrested on July 27th, 1994.

In the meantime, British crime squad detectives linked Todd to two Birmingham criminals, 50-year-old Terry Silcock and 48-year-old Alan Jones from Blockley, Gloucestershire.

Undercover agents taped the pair boasting about their links to Garland, and claiming Garland was a leader of the Official IRA and was controlling the distribution of the 'supernotes' in Britain and Ireland.

In October 1997, Seán Garland allegedly travelled to Moscow with a Dublin acquaintance identified by the US secret service as "JM".

There, Garland went to the North Korean embassy to arrange the purchase of new $100 bills as the North Koreans had copied new security features introduced by the Americans.

When he returned to Dublin, Garland was allegedly careful not to have direct contact with less senior conspirators and potential buyers, having Christie Corcoran do the negotiations for him.

According to the US indictment, those in on the scheme were instructed to use code words such as "jackets" and "paperwork" when talking about the 'supernotes'. The Americans also allege that Garland used the Official IRA to run the operation.

Garland, the Americans claim, told other members of the conspiracy that the dollars originated in Russian and not in North Korea, so as to throw potential moles off the scent.

Corcoran, Silcock and another British criminal, Mark Adderley, from Kinver in Staffordshire, are said to have solicited David Levin, a former KGB agent turned British criminal, as a potential buyer for the notes.

Levin, living in Alvechurch, Worcestershire, agreed to get involved and obtained funds and couriers for the operation through an associate in Latvia known as "HJ".

In the first six months of 1998, Garland is alleged to have travelled to Moscow three times to pick up new batches of `supernotes' from the North Korean embassy.

The money was allegedly smuggled into Dublin in holdalls and in clothes, according to secret audio recordings of Todd, who went with Garland on two of the trips.

While Garland was allegedly setting up the Moscow deliveries, the British crime squad was watching Jones and Silcock travelling to Dublin on the ferry to pick up the notes on behalf of Levin, the Russian criminal, with Silcock making at least 15 trips from 1998 onwards.

Jones was also followed as he cashed some of the notes at a Thomas Cook travel agency on October 30th, 1998. But complications arose in 1999, as the Russian authorities came under heavy pressure from the Americans to shut down the operation at the North Korean embassy.

In January and again in June 1999, Garland, Corcoran and Silcock are alleged to have travelled to Moscow in search of more notes.

However, on both occasions, the North Koreans backed out and later moved the operation to Minsk in Belarus, where the Garland and his groups were able to pick up new batches.

By then, according to the indictment, Garland knew that someone was informing the police and had been warned by Levin that the British police knew about his June trip to Moscow.

Nevertheless, Silcock and Jones continued to meet undercover crime squad detectives who posed as criminals interested in buying at least $1 million in 'supernotes'.

In one recorded conversation on June 27th, 1999, they tell the agents that Seán Garland was "the colonel in chief" of the "old style IRA" and when he "capitalises on the paperwork", meaning the fake dollar notes, "it all goes back into the organisation". Garland was getting increasingly concerned about infiltration in the group, the indictment claims. In a recorded conversation on August 1st, 1999, Corcoran tells the two undercover agents that Garland had told him to look out for a "leak" in the 'supernotes' operation.

Corcoran is alleged to have tightened up on the use of code words, telling the undercover agents a month later to use "jackets" as a code for the 'supernotes'. He again tells them that he has been sent by Garland, a "top IRA man" to whom he is related through marriage, to find out who was leaking information.

The following day, Corcoran allegedly tells the two agents that if they want to buy $1 million in 'supernotes', they will first have to put up a bond to guarantee payment, such is Garland's fear that the operation will be exposed. With the North Koreans having shifted the operation to Minsk to avoid detection, Levin allegedly uses his Russian contacts to arrange fake passports and fake Belarus visas so that Garland's group could pick up more notes in Minsk.

On October 20th, 1999, the British crime squad allegedly saw Silcock give the passports to a Dublin associate of Garland, identified by the US secret service as "JD".

The next day, allegedly using the fake passport, Garland flew first to Copenhagen, Denmark to avoid detection. From there, he faxed a hotel reservation request for himself to a hotel in Minsk.

Meanwhile, Corcoran was continuing to handle the parcels of British money that were being smuggled in to Ireland as Levin's payments for the 'supernotes'. Levin's operation was going well. He found international buyers for the 'supernotes', selling a quantity on November 1999 to an acquaintance named "MM".

When it became clear that there was a mole somewhere in the operation, Garland stopped travelling to Russia and Belarus.

Instead, he sent an acquaintance from Dublin, identified as "AB", who first flew to Birmingham airport on April 4th, 2000 and was picked up by Silcock.

"AB" and Silcock were given false passports containing Russian visas by two men sent by Levin. "AB" and Silcock then flew to Dublin and gave the passports to two other Garland supporters, identified as "TL" and "GD", who flew to Minsk to pick up more 'supernotes', using a circuitous route through the UK and Germany.

However, things started to go seriously wrong the following month as Levin was having problems paying Garland for the last batch of 'supernotes'. He passed on a message to Garland that banks in his native Russia were no longer allowing him to cash the 'supernotes' and that German authorities had seized $250,000 in 'supernotes' from one of his couriers.

In appears that Garland may have become suspicious and Levin was anxious to prove his claim. He had Silcock fax Garland a Russian document showing that Russian banks had detected the 'supernotes' and a German language document proving that the Germans had confiscated the $250,000 in 'supernotes'. Both of these faxes have allegedly been intercepted by the British crime squad.

By June 1999, Levin came up with $98,000 to give to Garland, and passed it on to a courier to deliver to Dublin.

The crime squad arrested Levin the following day. He told them that he didn't know the money he received was counterfeit. A month later, he allegedly gave limited co-operation to police, telling them the whereabouts in Moscow of $70,000 in 'supernotes'. These notes were then picked up by the Russian authorities as evidence.

The same day, Silcock was arrested at a Birmingham pub and Jones was picked up a few days later, revealing some of the stash of profits from the 'supernote' operation. In 2002, Levin, Silcock and Adderley were jailed for nine, six and four years respectively for what police said was the largest counterfeit dollar operation ever seen in Britain. Silcock alone handled $4.2 million in counterfeit money, the court heard and the whole operation was worth $29 million.

Questions still remain that will only be answered if Seán Garland and other members of the "Supernote Seven" are extradited to the US.

Who for example, are Garland's five associates, named "JM", "JD", "AB", "TL" and "GB" who were also said to have been involved in bringing the 'supernotes' in and out of Dublin. Are they members of the Official IRA, which the US secret service claims in the indictment were running the day-to-day operation of the `supernote' scheme?

If US intelligence is correct, the Official IRA is far from defunct, having delivering multi-million dollar parcels of Korean manufactured dollars in and out of Dublin for years. Whether that claim will stand up in a Washington DC courtroom remains to be seen.

Conor Lally adds: A Dublin based spokesman for the Workers' Party, John Jefferies, told The Irish Times yesterday that neither Seán Garland nor any other member of the party had seen the indictment. As a result of this he was not in a position to comment. Garland did not respond to a request for a comment. The request was made by telephone to the party's Belfast office on Friday. Party general secretary John Lowry said Garland was currently living in the North as a condition of his bail following his arrest by the PSNI in Belfast in relation to alleged international counterfeiting offences.