3 Charged With Trying To Smuggle Arms Into N Ireland

23 June 2006
Dow Jones International News

Three suspected Irish Republican Army dissidents, including a husband and wife, were arraigned Friday on charges of trying to smuggle weapons into Northern Ireland.

Desmond Kearns, 41, his wife Alison Kearns, 37, and Michael Gregory, 37, were ordered held without bail until their next court appearance July 28.

Continue Reading... Labels: Alison Kearns, Alvor, Dermot Declan Gregory, Dermot Gregory, Desmond Kearns, Desmond Paul Kearns, MI5, Michael Dermot, Portugal, Real IRA

Husband and wife in court on weapon plot charges

23 June 2006
Press Association
Alan Erwin

A husband and wife were among three people who appeared in court today accused of an alleged international weapons plot by dissident republican terrorists. The conspiracy involved machine guns, explosives, and anti-tank weapons, it was claimed. Belfast Magistrates Court was also told the alleged plot stretched to Portugal.

Continue Reading... Labels: Alison Kearns, Alvor, Dermot Declan Gregory, Dermot Gregory, Desmond Kearns, Desmond Paul Kearns, MI5, Michael Dermot, Portugal, Real IRA

Trio in Belfast court accused of international weapons plot

23 June 2006
Agence France Presse

Three people close to a dissident republican paramilitary group in Northern Ireland were accused in court Friday of participating in an international weapons plot. Belfast Magistrates Court heard that the alleged conspiracy involved machine guns, explosives and anti-tank weapons, and stretched as far as Portugal and France. The three -- all remanded in custody -- were believed to be close to the Real IRA, a dissident group opposed to the peace process between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland. They were among 10 people arrested Monday in a major police operation involving 200 officers.

Continue Reading... Labels: Alvor, Desmond Kearns, Desmond Paul Kearns, MI5, Omagh, Portugal, Real IRA

3 suspected IRA dissidents charged with trying to smuggle arsenal into N. Ireland

23 June 2006
Associated Press Newswires

Three suspected Irish Republican Army dissidents, including a husband and wife, were arraigned Friday on charges of trying to smuggle weapons into Northern Ireland. Desmond Kearns, 41, his wife Alison Kearns, 37, and Michael Gregory, 37, were ordered held without bail until their next court appearance July 28.

Continue Reading... Labels: Alison Kearns, Alvor, Desmond Kearns, Desmond Paul Kearns, MI5, Portugal, Real IRA

Three charged following searches

23 June, 2006
BBC News

Three people have been remanded in custody following searches earlier this week by police in Armagh and Fermanagh. Police said at the time they believed they had stopped an international gun smuggling operation. Desmond Kearns, 41, and his wife Alison Patricia Kearns, 37, from Tannaghmore Green, Lurgan, were charged in a Belfast court with procuring weapons. Michael Dermot Gregory, 37, of Concession Road, Crossmaglen, was charged with making assets available.

Continue Reading... Labels: Alison Kearns, Alvor, Dermot Declan Gregory, Dermot Gregory, Desmond Kearns, Desmond Paul Kearns, MI5, Michael Dermot, Portugal, Real IRA

Three charged in Belfast over weapons plot

23 June 2006
Reuters News Belfast

Three people including a husband and wife appeared in a Belfast court on Friday charged with a string of terrorist offences following a police operation earlier this week against dissident Irish republicans. The three were among 10 people detained on Monday after some 200 police officers backed by the British Army carried out raids in Counties Armagh and Fermanagh, disrupting what police described as "a potential major terrorist conspiracy".

Continue Reading... Labels: Alison Kearns, Alvor, Dermot Declan Gregory, Dermot Gregory, Desmond Kearns, Desmond Paul Kearns, MI5, Michael Dermot, Portugal, Real IRA

Dissidents arrested

23 June 2006
Associated Press - Belfast

Three suspected Irish Republican Army dissidents, including a husband and wife, were arraigned Friday on charges of trying to smuggle weapons into Northern Ireland. Desmond Kearns, 41, his wife Alison Kearns, 37, and Michael Gregory, 37, were ordered held without bail until their next court appearance July 28. Detective

Chief Inspector Neil Graham, a police officer who interrogated them following their arrest Monday, testified that all three were suspected of trying to smuggle a vast array of weaponry via Portugal and France into Northern Ireland.

Continue Reading... Labels: Alison Kearns, Alvor, Desmond Kearns, Desmond Paul Kearns, MI5, Portugal, Real IRA

Derry Dissident Deported from U.S.

23 Nov 2005
Irish Voice
Sean O'Driscoll

A Derry dissident Republican has been deported from the U.S. after refusing an FBI and British intelligence offer to become an informer in exchange for a new house in Portugal and large cash payments. Sean Devine, who has fundraised for dissident Republican prisoners, was recently questioned at Newark Airport for over six hours by a five man team lead by the FBI, the Northern Ireland Special Branch and the British Intelligence organization, MI5.

Continue Reading... Labels: Alvor, Informer, MI5, Portugal, Real IRA

Dungiven Man ‘Disgusted’ At US Arrest

11 Nov 2005
Derry Journal


A Dungiven man has said he is ‘totally disgusted’ at the way he was treated after he was stopped entering the United States last week and pressurised into becoming an informer for the PSNI. The man, Sean Devine, also said he is deeply perturbed at the extent of the surveillance he must have been kept under in order for the security services to know so much about him. Mr. Devine said that he had been involved in work for republican prisoners in Maghaberry but had never been before a court on any sort of charges. He told the Journal what happened:

Continue Reading... Labels: Informer, MI5, Portugal, Real IRA

Deportee's Real IRA Links

30 Nov 2005
Irish Voice
Sean O'Driscoll


A Derry man who was deported from the U.S. earlier this month is a fundraiser for a Republican prisoner welfare group which the U.S. government considers a front for the Real IRA, the Justice Department has confirmed. Sean Devine, from Dungiven in Co. Derry, told the Irish Voice last week that he was offered a new home in Portugal if he became an informer for MI5 and the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

Continue Reading... Labels: Alvor, Informer, MI5, Portugal, Real IRA