17.2.05

BBC

Police seize Northern Bank notes


More than £26m was stolen from the Northern Bank

Police in the Irish Republic have arrested seven people and recovered a large amount of cash.

Over £2m is said to have been seized by police during raids in the Cork area, with more than £60,000 reported to be in Northern Bank notes.

Irish police have not confirmed if the raid is connected to the £26m Northern Bank robbery in Belfast in December.

The IRA has been blamed by the British and Irish governments for stealing the money. The IRA has denied this.

Arrests

The arrests were made as part of an on-going investigation into money-laundering.

Two men were arrested on Wednesday night in the Douglas and Passage West areas of Cork and another three were also detained in Dublin.

A man and a woman were arrested in a follow-up operation in the Farran area on the outskirts of the city on Thursday morning.

An Irish police spokeswoman said the suspects are being detained under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.

Sinn Fein's Martin McGuiness said he was unaware of the arrests and said he would make no comment on the matter until he had more information.

He said there had been previous reports of Northern Bank notes being found and those reports had been false.

The party's leadership has said they believe IRA denials that it did not carry out the bank robbery.

Assistant Chief Constable Sam Kincaid, who has been in charge of the Northern Bank investigation, was in Dublin on Thursday for meetings with senior Garda officers.

It is understood the raid was high on the agenda for the discussions.

A police spokesman in Northern Ireland said it was too early to say whether or not the arrests are connected to the robbery.

"The PSNI is working closely with An Garda Siochana as we have done since the start of the investigation," he added.


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