Garland facing fresh counterfeiting claims.
Internet 'statement' alleges secret Official IRA cell involved
Sunday September 30 2007
The United States Justice Department is examining a document posted on the internet last week which claims to outline the activities of a secret department within the Official IRA which produced counterfeit American $100 bills.
The document, which is described as a "statement", outlines the alleged activities of Workers Party president Sean Garland, who is wanted in the United States for allegedly producing counterfeit US dollars.
Mr Garland was indicted by the United States Attorney General's Office in October 2005 just days after he was arrested in Belfast. The indictment named Garland as the leader of the Official IRA and accused him of working with North Korea to produce and distribute counterfeit $100 bills which were smuggled to Britain and Ireland.
Garland was arrested in Belfast on October 7, 2005, on the eve of his party's annual conference, on foot of an extradition application by the US Attorney General.
He was granted bail in a Belfast Court on condition that he remain in the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom but fled to the Republic to avoid extradition proceedings. On December 1, 2005, the High Court in Belfast issued a warrant for Garland's arrest after he failed to appear for an extradition hearing.
The posting on the internet last Thursday evening is understood to be a statement made to the BBC to convince the corporation's lawyers that there was sufficient grounds to broadcast a programme about the Official IRA's involvement in the counterfeiting and distribution of the $100 dollar bills, which have been described as "superdollars".
The claim was made by a Belfast-based journalist who met Garland in 1970, when he was working as a milkman in Clydebank, Glasgow.
The statement claims that the Official IRA had a "group B" department which was involved in nefarious activities -- including robbery -- in support of the party, and said the main figure in this department was Jim Flynn, who was later shot dead in Dublin.
The journalist alleges that in or around 1982 Garland asked him if he knew of any way to acquire banknote paper, because a printer who was a member of the Workers Party had perfected a plate for producing Irish banknotes.
The statement goes on to say that Garland asked how difficult it would be to break in to premises in Cheltenham in England to steal the special paper required to produce credible forged notes. "He [Garland] was desperate to produce forged notes."
The journalist claims that at one time he was asked to travel to Copenhagen to meet the printer to receive a suitcase packed with forged American dollars, but the trip was cancelled at the last minute. The statement also outlines Workers Party plans to set up an import/export company with a view "to making a million".
He says a plan was hatched to build up a credit rating and then liquidate the company after selling off the stock for cash.
"Sean had built up contacts in eastern Europe and North Korea who were prepared to supply us with goods on a long-term credit basis ... he managed to acquire blank company cheques.
"He arranged for the cheques to be made out to around a dozen names and he gave me money to open a number of bank accounts in the same names.
"I deposited cheques in these accounts and when I attempted to withdraw the funds it was obvious to me that the scam had been rumbled. It was dropped without producing any funds,'' the statement claimed.
"In the course of my work as a journalist I learned that Sean's people in Belfast had been involved in a number of ventures to launder large sums of dollars, including a trip to the States, and another when young people were given a load of dollars to distributed [sic] in Dublin.
"It is my view that Sean Garland travelled a long road from 'physical force' IRA man to hardline Marxist, but the collapse of communism had an earth-shattering effect on his intellect and he ended up being morally corrupt," the statement concluded.
A spokesman for the US Attorney General in Washington said on Friday that the statement was being passed to the lead prosecutor in the Garland case for examination and Mr Garland was still being sought by the US authorities to stand trial in America on criminal charges.
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/garland-facing-fresh-counterfeiting-claims-1092494.html
