A LINK has emerged between the criminal gang suspected of murdering journalist Veronica Guerin and a gang of drug dealers made up of former republican and loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland.
It has been revealed that a former republican figure, originally from the Border area, who gardai say moved large amounts of cannabis from Dublin into Northern Ireland, was arrested late last year by the RUC in the strongly loyalist Shankill Road area in Belfast.
According to security sources in the North, the man, who is from the south Armagh area and was active in the Irish National Liberation Army in the 1970s and 1980s, was arrested in a ear along with two former members of the Ulster Defence Association.
Their car was stopped in the lower Shankill area by RUC officers who suspected the three were carrying drugs. The former INLA man broke free but was found later hiding in a wheelie bin outside a house a short distance away. No drugs were found in the car and the three were released after questioning.
According to security sources in Belfast, the former INLA man is regarded as being prominently involved in drug dealing in Northern Ireland and particularly of supplying gangs of former loyalist paramilitaries who are now heavily involved in drug trafficking.
The former INLA man has an apartment in south Dublin and was a close associate of the gang which gardai believe murdered Ms Guerin. He is said to have been prominent at social occasions with the Dublin gang.
The gang's drug importing operations were stopped by the gardai investigating Ms Guerin's murder in June last year. The leader of the gang is in prison abroad. His partner, a man suspected of having been a Garda informant and who also supplied Ms Guerin with information for stories, is living in reduced circumstances in the south of Spain.
The man who gardai believe actually shot Ms Guerin dead was last detected living in England, and the man who rode the motorcycle which carried the gunman was last seen in a holiday apartment in Gran Canaria. All are said to be short of money.
There had been persistent reports in recent years about links between Dublin criminal gangs, former republicans and former loyalists. It was also known that the gang which killed Ms Guerin had links with former INLA members in Dublin and the man who actually shot her dead had links with this organisation in the 1970s. It is believed the former INLA man detected with the loyalists in Belfast had been buying large amounts of cannabis from the Dublin gang and selling it through his loyalist contacts.
Late last year, gardai and RUC officers intercepted a gang made up of former loyalists and former republicans in Co Donegal. The men had a boat and walkie talkies and were believed to have been preparing to meet a yacht which was carrying a large consignment of cannabis to a rendezvous point off north Donegal.