Suspected IRA dissidents arrested

Business as usual as US-based hotel group buys capital's Four Seasons
10 July 2011
The Sunday Independent (Ireland)

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Suspected IRA dissidents arrested

Two suspected IRA dissidents have been arrested on the Portuguese Algarve. Anti-terrorist officers detained the pair during raids over the weekend. A Portuguese man was also held. Ten firearms and some ammunition were found during one of the raids, thought to have been approved after a joint British-Portuguese police operation involving several months of covert surveillance.

The suspected dissidents, aged 38 and 59, were yesterday being held in jail after being quizzed by a local magistrate. Police believe they led a support network for the Real IRA.

One of the men is thought to be an expat living on the Algarve, previously identified by security services as a Real IRA fundraiser involved in drugs, weapons and cigarette smuggling.

The other man is said to have driven to the Algarve from Belfast shortly before his arrest to pick up weapons he planned to smuggle back to Northern Ireland.