SPY KING ‘SLAB’ SPARKS QUEEN TERROR THREAT
Gardai on high alert after IRA chief and mystery man are spotted filming where Royals will visit next month
Gardai have launched a massive investigation after former IRA chief of staff Thomas “Slab” Murphy was spotted with a man who was filming where the Queen is due to visit next month, the Sunday World can reveal.
Detectives are desperately trying to identify the man who was caught on CCTV filming areas around Trinity College on Nassau Street last Saturday, accompanied by the provo kingpin.
Senior sources say that the 61-year old was pointing out specific areas to the mystery man who was capturing the scene on a camcorder.
Detectives attached to the special branch have spent the last week trying to unmask Murphy’s pal but without success. Sources say Slab Murphy is still regarded as being a senior and influential member of the republican terror movement.
Fears
Dozens of officers are working full time to try to get the man identified over fears he could be a dissident republican planning to launch an attack when Queen Elizabeth II arrives on May 17.
Gardai have real fears that the event will be marred by a major security incident and all Garda leave has been cancel in order to prevent a terror attack.
Sources say that the Garda Commissioner has been personally briefed about the Slab Murphy development and senior officers are hugely concerned about it.
The Queen will visit Trinity during her historic three-day visit next month.
Murphy is a ruthless terrorist who personally masterminded the importation of hundreds of tonnes of lethal weapons from Libya during the Troubles.
As head of the IRA – and leader of the ruthless South Armagh cell – he was in charge while hundreds of innocent people were killed.
Gardai are also probing whether the worrying Slab Murphy surveillance incident is linked to the new terror group that claimed responsibility for the murder of the catholic PSNI officer Ronan Kerr last month.
Last Friday the group, which is made up of former IRA members, issued a statement admitting the murder and vowed to up their campaign of terror and violence until the end of “British occupation”.
Gardai are working closely with their PSNI colleagues to assess the ability and likelihood that the group will launch an attack in the south during the queen’s visit and have also asked PSNI detectives to help them identify Murphy’s friend at Trinity College.
Surveillance
A senior source said: “It is safe to say that this is the biggest worry in the entire organisation at the moment. Slab Murphy is free to come and go as he pleases but the fact that a known terrorist was involved in what looks like a surveillance operation is of huge concern.
“To be honest we really need to find out who he was with as soon as possible.
“It is fair to assume that Slab Murphy knows a lot of people hellbent on destroying the peace process and targeting the Queen”
Gardai will be forced to apply to Interpol to run thousands of background checks on foreign nationals to make sure they pose no threat to the queen’s visit.
Extra staff have been drafted into the Dublin Interpol office at Garda headquarters to deal with the flood of security checks.
Senior gardai have decided that every house on the route the Queen will take as part of her official visit will have to be visited by detectives and everybody living there interviewed.
If residents are not home when gardai call a note will be made so that other gardai call to the house again, because officers have to physically meet every resident on the route.
Irish nationals will be subject to background checks through the pulse computer system while non-Irish will be checked through Europol and Interpol.
Gardai do not know how many people have to be quizzed yet but they expect the figure to be tens of thousands.
The controversial ban on garda overtime has been scrapped to allow officers to conduct the background checks after the Department of Justice allocated extra money to the Garda budget. It is expected that the cost of providing security for the visit will be in excess of €25m.
The Queen will travel through the Phoenix Park and down the North Quay up to Croke Park and because of the number of rented apartments along the route detectives are contacting registered landlords to get a list of their tenants.
The Sunday World has also learned that between 30-40 suspected dissidents who are classed as high security risks are already under round-the-clock surveillance by members of the garda special branch.
Gardai have no intelligence that any terrorist group is planning to target the Queen but they are taking no chances and every known dissident is being watched.
They will continue to be monitored 24 hours a day for the next three weeks until Queen Elizabeth II arrives.
