TWO members of Sinn Fein were being questioned last night after the discovery of £2.6 million in bank notes linked to the United Kingdom’s largest bank robbery.
The arrests in Cork come after weeks of denials by Sinn Fein that the IRA was involved.
Tom Hanlon, who in the past stood for the Irish Parliament as a Sinn Fein candidate and is a former councillor, was arrested with two other men and a woman. Three more men were arrested in Dublin.
Much of the cash recovered is in sterling notes. It is believed to have been found in a barrel. Two of the seven arrested are suspected by police of being IRA financial experts.
The British and Irish Governments have already blamed the Provisional IRA for carrying out the Northern Bank robbery. They said that senior Sinn Fein officials were aware of the plans. The robbery has damaged attempts to restart power-sharing in Northern Ireland.
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Sinn Fein’s leadership has said that it believed IRA denials that it did not carry out the robbery.
But on Wednesday Gerry Adams, the party’s president, suggested for the first time that he might be wrong.
Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein’s chief negotiator, said last night that he was unaware of the arrests and that he would make no comment until he had more information. He said that previous similar reports had been false.
Police described the arrests as part of investigations into money-laundering operations. Detectives are believed to be investigating a money-laundering operation in which couriers brought cash from Belfast to a business in Cork, which was used to “clean” the cash.
Police on both sides of the Irish border have been carrying out intense investigations since the Northern Bank head- quarters in Belfast city centre was plundered a few days before Christmas.
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In a highly co-ordinated raid the masked gang broke into the homes of two senior staff who had access to the bank’s vault. They held their families hostage before forcing the pair to go to work the next day.
The bank’s vault was full of Christmas takings from the city’s stores. It was all but emptied by executives under the orders of their abductors.
The seven being questioned last night were held under the section 30 of the Irish Republic’s Offences Against the State Act, which is used in a similar way to the UK’s anti-terrorism laws. The Garda Siochana refused to comment other than to say that the investigation was ongoing.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland said that it was too early to say whether the cash and arrests were linked to the Northern Bank robbery.
Two of the men were arrested on Wednesday night in the Douglas and Passage West areas of Cork. A man and a woman were arrested in the Farran area of Cork yesterday morning and the bulk of the cash was found at addresses in the city. It is understood that two of three men arrested in Dublin are from Londonderry.
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Last night it was reported that the Garda began further raids in Meath and Westmeath, northwest of Dublin.
Enda Kenny, the Fine Gael leader, last night told the Irish Examiner that the arrests has raised grave questions for Sinn Fein. “In view of Sinn Fein’s repeated denials of Sinn Fein or IRA involvement in any criminal activity, the leadership must make an immediate statement on this development and on its relationship with those involved,” he said. Pat Rabbitte, the Labour Party leader, said that the seizure of large amounts of money was an “ astonishing development”.
He said: “It appears that today’s events are particularly significant in the context of the Northern Bank robbery and subsequent denials by IRA and Sinn Fein.”