The Co Louth man suspected of organising the huge cigarette smuggling operation uncovered by customs in the past three days is a close associate of a leading "Real IRA" figure. writes Jim Cusack, Security Editor.
It appears that the "Real IRA", based in the Border area, intended flooding the black market in both Northern Ireland and the Republic with cheap, smuggled tobacco in time for Christmas.
The cigarettes were to be sold to dealers who would then pass them on to market stall-holders, shops, licensed premises and other small retailers. In the North, these cheap cigarettes are sometimes sold from ice-cream vans.
The smuggled cigarettes sell for about £1.50 sterling less than normal retail prices in the North. The huge volume of tobacco discovered by customs in Drogheda and Dundalk suggests that the cigarettes are also being sold in bulk to loyalist paramilitaries who control the trade in Protestant areas.
The "Real IRA" has been sending people to eastern Europe over the past year to buy cigarettes on the black market. They were also seeking weapons. Early yesterday it was suspected that there might be weapons on board the ship searched at Warrenpoint, so a large security operation was put in place.
It is believed that the cigarettes were bought in Estonia, which has a thriving black market. They were manufactured in the UK and sold to the Baltic states.
The "Real IRA" based in the Border area between Dundalk and south Armagh has been trying to corner the market in smuggled cigarettes for a number of years.
In doing so it has come into conflict with the Provisional IRA, which is also involved in the same trade and was responsible for the theft of four container loads of cigarettes from Belfast Docks last May. In October 1999, the IRA shot dead a "Real IRA" figure, Joe O'Connor, who was trying to extend the group's trade in cigarettes into west Belfast.
The man seen as responsible for the two shipments discovered this week is in his late thirties and is said to be a close associate of a leading "Real IRA" figure from Co Louth.
He is well known to the Garda but has not been arrested in connection with the smuggling operation.
A number of other republicans who are also involved in smuggling are known to have visited eastern Europe in the past year.
The discovery of cigarettes worth at least £6 million is an indication of how lucrative the smuggling trade is in the Border area. However, Garda sources say the recovery of the cigarettes marks a significant blow against the "Real IRA".
Sources said that although the group continues to pose a security threat, the group is in disarray after a succession of Garda and Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) successes against it. The organisation's Dublin membership has been stood down and is effectively now a separate group.