Gardaí investigating a suspected Provisional IRA money-laundering operation believe some £750,000 was burned by a man in Co Cork who panicked when he heard gardaí were raiding houses looking for Northern Bank notes.
Officers also believe some £400,000 was brought to England to be laundered just days before gardaí raided the house of a financial adviser in Co Cork and seized a further £2.3 million hidden in a basement of the building.
According to an informed source, gardaí now believe that a 47-year-old man was given some £750,000 to mind by a republican activist in the greater Cork area just before the activist was arrested for questioning last Wednesday.
The 47-year-old man panicked when he heard gardaí were raiding houses looking for stolen Northern Bank cash and he proceeded to burn the £750,000 in his fireplace.
Gardaí, who have recovered over £600,000 in other operations since last Thursday's raid, yesterday continued with a series of searches in Cork and Kerry, as well as in Dublin and other parts of the country.
Searches at the homes of some Sinn Féin members in Cork prompted a strong rebuke from the party's elected representatives throughout the city and county who accused the Garda of "politically-motivated harrassment".
Eleven Sinn Féin councillors strongly condemned a raid by gardaí on the home of 19-year-old Cllr Roisín O'Sullivan, a Sinn Féin member of Passage Town Council.
Cllr Jonathan O'Brien said that eight Special Branch detectives raided Cllr O'Sullivan's home at 8 p.m. on Monday night and "spent an hour taking the house apart and behaving in an extremely aggressive manner".
Detectives from the CAB recovered a further £5,000 when they revisited a man in east Kerry who had handed over £10,000 at the weekend.
