Big business IRA

The IRA makes up to £30 million a year from legitmiate and illegal businesses in Ireland and the UK. Suzanne Breen reports

If the Provisional IRA was a legal business, it would be promoted by the authorities as one of the biggest commercial success stories of peace process Northern Ireland.

For in terms of growth, profit, and entrepreneurial spirit, it is unmatched.

The IRA has managed to run its traditional enterprises – robberies, fraud and smuggling – along with developing new initiatives.

It is now one of the main property owners in nationalist areas where it runs hundreds of legitimate businesses. Republican and security sources say it makes at least £30 million a year.

"The days when the IRA operated on a shoestring are long gone," says a security source.

"The IRA is one of the wealthiest organisations in Ireland, North or South."

Since the ceasefire, IRA "overheads" have fallen dramatically. Although weapons are still bought, there are no longer the day-to-day costs of waging war and paying prisoners' families.

Republican sources say profits are reinvested or used to fund Sinn Féin.

"Some of the money goes towards advice centres, election campaigns, publications, and general political development," says a source.

The IRA started buying legitimate businesses in the early 1990s, but this trend intensified dramatically after the ceasefire.

Local businessmen with no criminal records are approached with offers to "front" IRA enterprises. They are either given a fixed wage or a share of the profits and a further cut if the business is sold. This has led to resentment among some veteran IRA members who see individuals, never involved in the war, making a profit from the peace.

The properties include pubs, hotels, nightclubs, shops, apartment blocks, restaurants and a range of retail premises. Initially, the businesses were predominantly in working-class nationalist districts but the IRA has expanded into religiously mixed, middle-class areas, according to both security and republican sources.

"There are many very respectable businesses in Belfast, Derry, Newry, Dublin and elsewhere which are owned by the IRA," says a security source. "Their clientele hasn't a clue."

The Provisionals still haven't abandoned more humble money-making ventures. They operate a proportion of slot machines in pubs, clubs, taxi depots, and fast food outlets in nationalist areas. The profits are generally split 50-50 with the owners. "One machine can bring in anything from £100-£300 a week," says a former IRA activist.

Unlike loyalist paramilitaries, the Provisionals aren't involved in extortion from the business community. However, they do operate extensive tax-exemption fraud.

A major earner has been cigarette smuggling. The IRA has illegally brought in a huge amount of tobacco in container lorries from Europe. Smaller scams have been used too. "At one stage the IRA paid for people to go on holiday with empty suitcases, which they would bring back filled with cartons containing up to 30,000 cigarettes. The IRA would pay for their week in Gran Canaria and for the cigarettes. If the suitcases were seized by Customs, then that was it, but plenty got through," says the former activist.

Security sources recall occasions where customs officers moved in after flight arrivals and "15 or 20 suitcases would be left unclaimed on the conveyer belt".

However, they say such small-scale smuggling is largely restricted to loyalists nowadays.

The IRA has also brought in counterfeit cigarettes from Asia. "They were absolutely awful," says a current member. "I don't know what kind of chemical concoction was mixed with the tobacco but some of them tasted like cigars.

You'd be choking on them. They weren't popular at all. People hadn't a clue what they were smoking."

Research carried out at St Andrew's University has shown that Asian counterfeit cigarettes contain five times as much cadmium as genuine cigarettes. Cadmium can severely damage the lungs and is linked with kidney disease.

Fake cigarettes also carry nearly six times as much lead, which damages the organs and nervous system. High levels of arsenic, which increase the risks of lung, liver and other cancers, were also found, according to Customs.

Further research shows counterfeit cigarettes seized by Customs contained 160 per cent more tar, 80 per cent more nicotine, and 133 per cent more carbon monoxide than genuine cigarettes. "This sort of stuff makes me very angry because the IRA is putting profit before the health and lives of its own community," says the activist. "It's hardly something to be proud of."

The IRA also manufactures and sells copy DVDs and CDs.

The IRA is also involved in both the smuggling and illegal distilling of alcohol. "The vodka produced is of a very high quality and it's often impossible to distinguish from the real thing," says a security source.

He also says the IRA initiates fraudulent claims regarding the exporting of alcohol. Documentation is lodged reclaiming duty on alcohol which is never exported. It is estimated that 10-15 per cent of cigarettes and alcohol sold in the North are as a result of illegal practices.

Diesel laundering remains one of the IRA's major financial ventures, costing the UK treasury hundreds of millions a year in unpaid taxes.

Agricultural diesel – which is dyed red in the North and green in the South – is bought cheaply. It is mixed, passed through acid in specially constructed tanks to bleach out the dye, and then sold as normal diesel. An illegal diesel plant discovered in farm buildings outside Newry this month had the capacity to process about 175,000 litres per week – equivalent to an annual tax revenue loss of over £5 million.

A security source says at least a third of garages in the North are, knowingly or unknowingly, selling illegal fuel. He also claims the IRA is no longer restricted to the Northern Ireland market but is now selling the diesel in Britain.

Container loads are being transported on trailers from ports in the Republic. "Moving 5,000 or 10,000 gallons of fuel like that is highly dangerous. It is a huge fire hazard, a disaster waiting to happen," says the source.

He recalls an incident last year in which a tank containing illegal diesel fell from a lorry near the border in Co Down. The driver fled the vehicle and the oil spilled onto the carriageway. A major accident was narrowly avoided.

The Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) is the North's equivalent of the Criminal Assets Bureau. In its first year, 2003-2004, it froze, or pursued through taxation law, assets worth £3 million.

It is led by former police Assistant Chief Constable Alan McQuillan, whose professionalism and commitment is widely acknowledged. The ARA's cases are evenly split between paramilitary and ordinary crime and between loyalists and republicans. It can only take on cases referred to it by Customs or by the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

There are strong suspicions that a decision has been taken in senior political circles to turn a blind eye to the financial activities of leading republicans as a pay-off for support for the peace process. "If certain people weren't making a nice little profit then they mightn't be too happy with the ideological road their movement is going down," remarks a security source.

Most of the money from Provisional IRA crime is reinvested in the organisation, or in Sinn Féin, but key individuals have also made healthy amounts of profit. "Along the border, it is sometimes difficult to see how much is done for the IRA and how much is done for certain families," says a security source.

However, he acknowledges that, unlike loyalist paramilitaries, republicans are generally less crude in displaying their wealth, particularly in the cities: "The loyalists are driving around in top-of-the-range Mercs and BMWs, sporting designer gear and gold jewellery.

"The Provos are much more circumspect. They upgrade their vehicles, but just to a nice Mondeo or other family saloon car. Maybe they'll take an extra holiday or two a year – but nowhere too flashy."

A former IRA member stresses that key individuals in Belfast who have profited financially continue to live in working-class areas: "They don't move to the Malone Road.

"They stay in the area but they build a nice extension to their house or they buy another property in a family member's name which they rent out.

They're smart enough to know that flaunting their wealth would lead to huge resentment among ordinary volunteers and supporters."