Former member of 'M60 Gang' charged in counterfeit cash machine case
A former leading member of the Provisional IRA and prison escaper was one of four men who appeared at the Special Criminal Court today charged with possessing equipment to make counterfeit money.
Anthony Sloan was arrested last year and is facing a charge of IRA membership and today he and three other men were remanded by the non jury court until October.
The four are Anthony Sloan (aged 57), a native of Belfast with an address at Ard na Mara, Dundalk, Co Louth, Liam Delaney (aged 41), of Borris-in-Ossory, Co Laois, Kevin Flanagan (aged 42), of Borris-in-Ossory and Andrew Poole (aged 43), of Portlaoise, Co Laois.
They are each charged with possession of equipment to manufacture counterfeit currency at Ballybrophy, Borris-in-Ossory, Co Laois on May 31, 2010.
Today, prosecution solicitor Ms Mary O' Donoghue told the court that the Director Public Prosecutions had certified that the ordinary courts were "inadequate" to secure the administration of justice and had directed that the men should be tried at the Special Criminal Court.
The court remanded all four men on bail until October 14 next.
Anthony Sloan was charged last November with membership of an illegal organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Oglaigh na hÉireann, otherwise the IRA on October 31 last year.
He was one of eight Provisional IRA prisoners who escaped from Crumlin Road prison in Belfast in 1981.
The day after the escape Sloan was convicted of possession of an M60 machine gun and jailed for 20 years in his absence.
He fled to the Republic where he was later recaptured by gardaí and jailed for eight years.
Sloan successfully challenged attempts to extradite him to the North and settled in the Republic.
In December 2000, he and the seven other members of the so-called 'M60 Gang' were given a royal pardon.
The eight men were arrested after a shootout in Belfast in 1980 with British troops, during which SAS Captain Herbert Westmacott was killed.
