Castlereagh break-in

Burglary at the headquarters of the Police Service of Northern Ireland on St Patrick's Day 2002.

Shortly after 10.00 pm on 17 March, three people entered Special Branch headquarters, overpowered the only police officer on duty in "Room 220" and left some 20-30 minutes later with a number of files and documents, and possibly computerised information. The incident happened at the notorious Castlereagh police complex which is not only home of the 800-strong Special Branch and the interrogation centre (closed in December 1999), but also housed the British Army’s Joint Support Group (JSG), formerly called the Force Research Unit (FRU). It has long been assumed that Castlereagh was one of the most secure police stations on these islands.

Investigations

In the week after the burglary, Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan announced an investigation to be headed by Detective Chief Superintendent Phil Wright, the most senior detective in Belfast. Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid commissioned an inquiry by the former Permanent Secretary of the NIO Sir John Chilcott.

Flanagan's retirement

The raid on Castlereagh happened as Sir Ronnie Flanagan was about to step off the policing stage in Northern Ireland and it was the talk of the place a week or so later on 25 March, when the security and political establishment gathered to say farewell to the outgoing Chief Constable.

In the grand setting of the Throne Room at Hillsborough Castle, {John Reid|Reid]] heaped praise on Flanagan. They were all there to hear his words: the most senior army officer in Northern Ireland at that time, Lieutenant General Alistair Irwin; the British Security Minister Jane Kennedy; Flanagan's deputy, Colin Cramphorn; the Head of Special Branch in Belfast Bill Lowry; and the tall chap in the grey suit, MI5's main man in Northern Ireland, its director and co-ordinator of intelligence, the man who had called New York those few days earlier with the new of the break-in.

Police raids

At 7.00 am on 30 March armed members of the PSNI forcibly entered the building in which the Pat Finucane Centre is based (the Pat Finucane Centre runs a major website on Northern Ireland policing controversies and can be found at www.serve.com/pfc/). The purpose allegedly was to search the offices of Tar Abhaile, on the floor above the PFC. A private flat on the ground floor was also entered. PFC, when they arrived at work at 9.00 am, were denied access to their office. They contacted two members of the management committee who were also denied access to the building on the grounds that they were “likely to interfere with the search”. Later that day it emerged that the offices of Cúnamh, a victims support group which has helped numerous families of those killed or wounded on Bloody Sunday, were also raided and personal and confidential information relating to the families were taken. Other raids were carried out in Belfast leading to the arrest of four men and one woman. One of those arrested was a civilian worker from a loyalist estate in East Belfast. A West Belfast Sinn Féin MLA member immediately condemned the arrests and raids as “ridiculous” and “highly” provocative. There were more arrests on 4 April and PSNI have threatened further raids.

Eight of the nine people detained were subsequently released. One man from the New Lodge area of Belfast was subsequently charged with possessing documents containing information which could be useful to terrorists planning or carry out an act of violence, contrary to the Terrorism Act 2000. For a couple of weeks, no details were given about the documents and police sources briefed that they were not linked to the Castlereagh break-in.

In the weeks after the March 17 raid, the security services pointed the finger at republican paramilitaries, believing it was an audacious attempt to expose informants and embarrass the Police Service of Northern Ireland, formerly the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Republicans were outraged when police and soldiers swooped on 12 homes and business premises in Belfast and Derry, arresting six people, including the former IRA hunger striker Raymond McCartney and Bobby Storey, whom security sources claim is the IRA's head of intelligence. Castlereagh break-in an 'inside job' by Rosie Cowan, Richard Norton Taylor and Nick Hopkins, The Guardian, Saturday June 22 2002.</ref>

Focus turns to IRA

The BBC's security correspondent reported on 19 April that the police investigation had initially focussed on the widely theory of an inside job.

At first, we were told by police sources the break-in had all the appearance of an "inside job" as those involved had an "amazing degree of knowledge" about the Castlereagh building.

The intruders knew that room "two-twenty" had been re-located just a few days earlier because of refurbishment work at the complex and they felt comfortable walking the corridors of this police headquarters.

They must also have believed that their movements would not be recorded by the many cameras monitoring this building.

However, Rowan said this assessment had now changed, and as a result of several intelligence leads, it was suspected the burglary was an IRA operation:

1. They are interested in a number of mobile phones that were being used in west Belfast in the period leading up to the break-in and on the night of the robbery itself. The phones have since gone quiet.

1. Calls to a number of public telephone boxes in that part of the city also form part of the investigation.

1. Intelligence assessments lead the police to believe the stolen Special Branch documents were moved from Belfast to Londonderry and then across the border into the Republic of Ireland.

1. Detectives want to interview a former chef at the Castlereagh complex who has gone to live in the United States. He is understood to have been in the building on the day of the robbery though he no longer worked there.

1. And investigators are understood to be assessing the movements of a number of vehicles and people - including a prominent Belfast republican - in the days before the break in.

What they have uncovered so far has convinced the police that the IRA is involved. The difficulty will be to produce the evidence to prove it.

What they think they can prove is that the IRA is updating its intelligence gathering.

This assessment follows searches in republican areas after the Castlereagh break-in when files, including information on senior Tories and on army bases in Britain, were found.

Larry Zaitschek

The chef mentioned by Rowan was subsequently identified as Larryy Zaitschek:

None was charged in connection with the raid. Police are, however, seeking to extradite Larry Zaitschek, a chef who formerly worked at Castlereagh, from the United States.

Rogue Special branch officers

In June 2002, a rash of stories appeared suggesting that the possibility of PSNI Special Branch involvement was being reconsidered.

Senior security service and British police sources now believe that the extraordinary break-in at the Castlereagh complex in east Belfast was an "inside job", undertaken by renegade special branch officers, possibly with the help of agents working for an undercover army unit.

They strongly suspect that the theft of sensitive documents on St Patrick's Day - a spectacular breach at one of the Northern Ireland's most fortified police bases - was not the work of Irish republican terrorists.

Police in the North have also said they are seeking the extradition from the United States of a former Castlereagh chef who is alleged to have been in telephone contact with a man regarded by the special branch as the IRA's head of intelligence.

However, no evidence has yet emerged to back up an extradition bid and police raids on the home of the IRA suspect and other republican houses yielded only documents which were unrelated to the Castlereagh break-in.

There is now a growing view, according to anti-terrorist sources last night, that the break-in was more likely part of a campaign to inflict severe political damage on Sinn Fein.

The sources claim the campaign aimed to divert attention away from the Stevens inquiry which is due to report shortly on the alleged collusion between the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries in the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane 13 years ago.

Another theory is that certain special branch officers are worried about reforms in policing structures in the North - which will downgrade the supremacy of the special branch - and are determined to undermine those championing the changes.