Gardaí are to travel to England to question a former agent about an IRA campaign along the Border, it was claimed today.
Detectives from Dundalk, Co Louth will also investigate the ex-British army operative about houses used by the Provisional IRA to build bombs at the height of their campaign, according to victims' representatives.
The Families Acting for Innocent Relatives claim the spy, who is in his mid-40s, will be questioned about up to six men believed to be involved in the organisation.
Mr William Frazer, spokesman for the south Armagh-based FAIR group, said: "Hopefully his statement will give them enough information to open up an investigation into the allegations we have made."
Several names of people kidnapped and murdered during the 1980s and early 1990s have been supplied to gardaí.
Photographs of houses in Co Louth where many of the victims were interrogated have also been passed to senior officers, Mr Frazer said.
The campaigner, whose father was murdered by republicans during the 1970s, has urged detectives to organise forensic tests on the properties to prove the men he is convinced were responsible did carry out the abductions and killings.
Some of the biggest and most deadly bombs transported into Northern Ireland were also built at these safe houses, he claimed.
Following a year of delicate negotiations, Mr Frazer said the Garda has pledged to investigate his allegations if the ex-mole backs him up.
The potentially key witness is believed to have worked for both RUC Special Branch and British military intelligence before quitting Northern Ireland several years ago.
During his time undercover he allegedly witnessed republican paramilitaries construct explosives and torture their victims at the properties.
"We know we can get the statement from him, but he's not prepared to come over to the Republic," Mr Frazer said.
"This is someone who maybe did 20 years along the border and nobody knows just how much he saw."
PA