THE IRISH MAFIA
By David Vance On June 4th, 2011 at 2:16 pmI read that former ‘active’ IRA members who amassed multi-million-euro fortunes went on to front a huge property empire for the paramilitary group spanning at least four countries.
Leaked embassy cables have revealed the “apparently respectable” entrepreneurs were used by the IRA to build up a huge continental property portfolio during the Celtic Tiger boom years. Separately, other shadowy businessmen were suspected by gardai of opening bank accounts and registering companies in Bulgaria in a bid to create “money-laundering vehicles” for the Provisionals. And they were suspected of teaming up with corrupt Bulgarian criminal gangs as part of a plan to launder millions on behalf of the terrorist organisation. Gardai first became aware of the Provo-Bulgarian link when suspected IRA members invited their Bulgarian allies toIreland. The revelations have emerged in the ‘Ireland Cables’ — a tranche of more than 1,900 US Embassy documents obtained by the Irish Independent from the whistleblowing organisation WikiLeaks. In one dispatch, a senior garda briefed US diplomats that, during the boom years, the IRA diversified away from smuggling, robbery and racketeering and into “more sophisticated business enterprises”.
The Irish Mafia, scum in every sense of the word, doing what gangsters do best. One of the upsides of the property crash is knowing that they must have lost a fortune.