Security shrouds trial of Real IRA weapons-trafficking suspects

The trial of five men accused of trafficking weapons to supply a dissident faction of the IRA – the Real IRA (RIRA) – began in the Algarve last week under a blanket of tight security.

Three men from Northern Ireland and two Portuguese nationals are implicated in the case, which dates back to July 2011, when a PJ counter-terrorism unit swooped on a campsite in Olhão and dismantled the set-up.
Three of the suspects are being held in Portugal, one remains free and the fifth suspect is in Ireland where he is facing extradition.
The three men being held in Portugal were heard in Olhão court last week, on Thursday 8 November.
A source from the court told The Portugal News this week that the suspects’ charges include possession of illegal weapons and criminal association.
On 7 July last year Portuguese PJ police raided suspect James Rice’s caravan on an Olhão campsite, seizing ten guns and ammunition in the operation.
Rice, 61, from Newry, Northern Ireland, admitted to having travelled to the Algarve with the intention of transporting the weaponry.
“They offered me £2,500 to take the guns to Ireland. I had lots of financial problems so I accepted”, he told the court.
Rice was arrested last July along with two other men, Conor Sheehan (49), from Belfast, who is said to have lived in the Algarve for several years, and Portuguese national Paulo Guerreiro, who is linked to the construction industry.
During their day in court Guerreio confessed to having arranged modified alarm guns for Sheehan, with whom he claimed to have been friends since 2006.
For his turn Sheehan said he was merely a translator for a fourth suspect, 53-year-old John McCann, who is believed to be the ringleader and is awaiting extradition in Northern Ireland.
Rice, Sheehan and Guerreio have all denied any connection to the Real IRA.
Fifth suspect António Mestre, a meat cutter, is currently awaiting his day in court in freedom. He will be heard on 5 December.
It is not the first time RIRA activity has been exposed in the Algarve.
In 2009 two men believed to belong to the Real IRA were found to be using a restaurant in the small fishing village of Alvor as a main European base.
It was at the Panda Grill on the fringe of the village that Paul Anthony McCaugherty and Michael Gregory allegedly negotiated the buying and selling of weapons for the Real IRA, between 2005 and 2006.
They are also believed to have done business in the Algarve, including a property transaction, to the sum of €46,000, to finance RIRA terrorist activity.
McCaugherty was described as the dissident group’s number two man. He is also believed to have had a hand in the cold-blooded killing of two British soldiers on 7 March 2009, at a military base in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
The Real IRA is a rebellious breakaway arm of the IRA (Irish Republican Army) which refuses to accept a cease-fire and peace in Ireland. Its main objective is to end British sovereignty in Northern Ireland through force.