The Garda operation: A businessman being questioned by gardaí was the link which connected gardaí to the £2.4 million seized in the county yesterday and which they strongly believe to be part of the proceeds of the Northern Bank raid in Belfast last December.
In a late development just before 9 p.m. last night, a man walked into Anglesea Street Garda station in Cork and handed gardaí more than £200,000. Gardaí believe this man knew the Cork businessman and was given the money to hide when the businessman realised gardaí were moving in on him.
The businessman was identified as a key person of interest during Garda profiling after the £26.5 million robbery. The man is a director of nine companies based in the Republic, the activities of which centre mostly on the financial sector.
Fourteen residential and commercial premises linked to these companies, and agents acting on their behalf, were searched yesterday in Cork, Dublin, Louth, Meath and Westmeath. A significant amount of documentation was taken from those offices.
The home of a close relative of a man working in a key position for the Government was among the premises raided in Co Louth, although he was not arrested.
Gardaí will today begin the task of sifting through the paperwork collected during yesterday's raids.
They believe much of it will provide them with a useful road map as to how much money from the robbery has been laundered and where and how this was done. It is believed the money may have been moved offshore and repatriated.
Senior Garda sources last night said they had gathered a very significant bank of intelligence that they were compelled to act on following the arrest of three men late on Wednesday at Dublin's Heuston Station.
When these men were arrested, the searches in Cork were immediately begun and continued for much of Wednesday night and into the early hours of yesterday morning.
One man, from a well-known Republican family in Cork, had brought €94,000 in laundered money up from Cork on the train. He was due to pass this to two men from Derry. These were under Garda surveillance and all three were arrested as the money was being passed on. They were being held at Clondalkin Garda station last night under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.
The man from Cork has had strong links to Sinn Féin in the past. He has been involved in their fund-raising activities.
Senior investigators from specialist Garda units will meet with their counterparts from the PSNI at a special security summit at Garda headquarters in Dublin's Phoenix Park today.
