| Culzie | Date: Monday, 2013-08-26, 10:54 PM | Message # 1 |
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Generalissimo
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| The tale of former IRA bomber and Mafia money N.L. 21 August
2013
GIVEN the high-profile fuss over the young woman from Dungannon who was caught with large quantities of drugs, it is surprising how little attention has been given to another person of this parish who has been caught up in an international crime story.
It is a story of Mafia scams, East African hideouts, Irish terrorists, tourist resorts in beautiful locations and massive sums of money. It is set against the backcloth of Italy’s renewed and tragic quest to rid itself of the blight of organised crime that has hampered economic and social growth in the country for too long.
It is a story that has everything. Why then has it remained so low profile?
Perhaps Henry Fitzsimons is not as photogenic as Michaella McCollum Connolly? Or perhaps some of the questions that the story throws up are a trifle inconvenient to those wedded to the approved peace process narrative?
Fitzsimons is a convicted IRA terrorist who was recently extradited from Senegal to Italy for his alleged part in a massive Mafia scam. Nicola Gratteri, one of those admirable and brave Italian investigators who risk their lives trying to bring Mafia criminals to justice, says that Fitzsimons was "delegated by the IRA to recycle the proceeds of terrorist activities and to reinvest the financial resources of the movement".
Whether Ms Gratteri’s assessment is accurate isn’t yet known. We will have to wait until the wheels of Italian justice turn until we will know the truth of the matter. But it is worrying that such a senior and well-informed individual can state in such a matter of fact manner that the Irish republican movement is so significantly linked with international organised crime? What does that say as to how Northern Ireland is really viewed by the international community.
According to La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, Southern Italy’s leading daily newspaper, with a track record of reporting on Mafia activity: "Fitzsimons was detained in Senegal for alleged money-laundering in the real-estate sector by the ‘Ndrangheta [Mafia]organized crime syndicate."
Fitzsimons has since been extradited to Rome to face trail. He was sought by Italian police as part of operation ‘Metropolis’, an investigation into the Mafia’s use of intimidation and other illegal activities to take control of construction of tourism and residential complexes in southern Italy, worth around of £400 million.
It is somewhat ironic that Fitzsimons should be alleged to be involved in criminal activity connected to the building of hotels in Italy, as he used to bomb them in Northern Ireland.
The terrorist turned millionaire international property developer, who started in business running a taxi firm and a filling station in Belfast, is protesting his innocence. He told a Belfast newspaper: "I have nothing to hide from anyone. Any transactions involving this development have been entirely above board." Shortly after making that statement he went to Senegal. Sonia Alfano of the European Anti-Mafia Commission noted: "He has gone to a country where the arrest warrant against him cannot be enforced."
Italian authorities allege that Fitzsimons pumped cash into the Mafia scheme and that money laundering is behind the enormous quantity of funds invested.
The Italian arrest warrant cites sums of up to €75 million are involved and that Mr Fitzsimons used a series of false names.
Italian police officer Colonel Claudio Pettrozziello said: ‘‘We know from the terminology he used [in wire-tapped phone conversations] that the money originated from crime."
This should be raising questions in Belfast and Dublin as to where the money was sourced from. Or perhaps such questions would also be politically inconvenient?
Ulster Protestants consider themselves to be a separate nation. This nation they call Ulster
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| RSAUB | Date: Saturday, 2013-08-31, 5:53 AM | Message # 2 |
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Colonel general
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| Yet another example of the IRA getting away with their crap,swept under the carpet in case it causes any political fall-out in Stormont.
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