Gardaí believe those behind the massive money-laundering operation discovered in Cork last week were working with a Bulgarian crime syndicate for over a year on plans to buy a bank in Bulgaria or establish a building society type financial institution there.
Gardaí are satisfied the Provisional IRA was intent on taking advantage of the ambitious plan by regularly moving the proceeds of its multi-million crime empire to the Bulgarian bank, where it would be laundered and returned here.
This bank was first to be used by the Bulgarian gang to send massive amounts of money to Ireland for lodgement in banks and for investment here in property and other assets. The Bulgarian gang was anxious to gain control of a bank in their homeland quickly because they needed to use it to hide their stockpiles of money in Ireland before Bulgaria joins the EU in 2007.
After that date they believed the financial sector in Bulgaria would be subjected to so much regulation that the movement of large sums of money would be fraught with difficulty. They also feared it would be impossible to launder their money once the euro currency was introduced.
Their plan was based on a blueprint developed by the Italian mafia in recent years when it bought a very significant amount of banks in Latvia, before it joined the EU last year. The Bulgarian gang has been involved in gun-running, cigarette smuggling and trafficking in drugs and humans. Their empire stretches far beyond their native Bulgaria.
Those running the laundering operation began meeting members of the Bulgarian gang late last year but they had been in contact with them for most of 2004. The first face-to-face meetings in Ireland took place in November and since then the parties have met here three times.
"They saw the Irish contacts as a vehicle to facilitate their plans," said one senior Garda source last night.
Gardaí believe the Provisional IRA approached an Irish individual, whom they had known for some time, after the £26.5 million Northern Bank raid in December. They wanted him to launder the proceeds of the robbery.
However, they quickly learned of the plan to set up, or buy, a bank in Bulgaria. Gardaí are satisfied that the Provisional IRA saw the connection to the Bulgarians and their bank as the perfect opportunity to launder significant amounts of money for at least the next two years.
Garda sources said the Provisional IRA also believed indigenous organised crime is so widespread in Bulgaria that even if they were detected, the authorities would not have seen bringing Irish criminals to justice as a top priority.
If the plan, which was well advanced, had come to fruition the Bulgarian bank would have effectively laundered the IRA's money by supplying the organisation with a starting point paper trail for the funds from an apparently legitimate financial institution.
