From: Independent.IE
Good Friday Agreement secret deal allows terrorist organisation accumulate fortune to bankroll political wing
Jim Cusack
A Belfast republican source, asked recently about the Provisional IRA – the supposedly defunct organisation from which modern Sinn Fein has emerged – mentioned the name of a fellow Belfast man, at present a low-key office holder in the party, who he described as ‘chief of staff’.
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Cigarette smuggling is also one of the IRA’s main earners. Forbes magazine recently published a list of the 10 richest terrorist organisations, which included the ‘Real’ IRA which, the magazine suggested, earned $40m from cigarette smuggling. Figures claiming to be ‘Real’ IRA do run much of the Border-based tobacco smuggling but they operate only under the authority of the Provisional IRA and pay ‘taxes’ to the mother organisation, Gardai and customs believe.
