THE IRA is continuing to train and recruit members as well as prepare for more robberies, according to senior security sources. Only days after being accused of masterminding the £26 million ($64 million) pre-Christmas robbery from the Australian-owned Northern Bank in Belfast, the sources expressed fears that the IRA was embarking on a big funding drive. The robbery, which Northern Ireland's police chief, Hugh Orde, has blamed on the IRA, is thought by some analysts to have been designed to secure a "pension fund" for the IRA's demobilised volunteers. "There is no intelligence to suggest that this was their last robbery," one British source said. "The intelligence available to the British and Irish governments suggests that they continue to train, plan and gather intelligence." He pointed to a series of previous robberies, each netting more than £1 million in the past two years. The most recent, last May, was mounted on a cash-and-carry warehouse at Dunmurry outside Belfast. Bulk thefts of cigarettes have made it necessary for Gallahers, a cigarette factory in Northern Ireland, to take goods to the Irish republic by boat through Liverpool because it is too dangerous to do so by road. The raid on the National Australia Bank-owned Northern Bank is seen as the most ambitious to date and raises the prospect of the IRA turning into a criminal mafia to enrich its members and fund its political arm, Sinn Fein.
There were few political repercussions after the previous thefts. This might explain Sinn Fein's outrage that it is now being put in the dock and called to account. Bobby Storey, the IRA head of intelligence, is believed to be the main planner behind the robberies. He also masterminded a break-in at Northern Ireland's Special Branch headquarters in Castlereagh where clues to the location of police informants and concealed listening devices were uncovered. This helped the IRA to avoid detection. In an attempt to limit the damage, the Northern Bank is withdrawing nearly £300 million of currency and replacing it with notes of a different colour. However, it will take two months to print the notes and the changeover period is expected to be at least another two months. This gives the IRA four months to get the stolen cash into circulation or converted into property.