Homes searched in paramilitary murder hunt
More than 30 properties were being searched today in a major operation by police in the North investigating a loyalist paramilitary murder eight years ago.
Sean Brown, 61, was shot dead by the Loyalist Volunteer Force who seized him as he locked up the gates of a GAA club in Bellaghy, Co Derry, in May 1997. His body was later found with his burnt-out car near Randalstown.
The searches were taking place in counties Antrim, Armagh and Tyrone, according to police sources.
As part of the same operation but unrelated to the murder, detectives also moved against a suspected money-laundering ring.
Officers involved with the Organised Crime Task Force took part in the trawls.
The Brown murder case was reopened by Northern Ireland Chief Constable Hugh Orde after appeals from the victim’s family.
Last month the BBC’s Crimewatch programme featured a reconstruction of Mr Brown’s last movements, which included new information about the route used by the suspects on May 12 1997.
The programme also featured personal appeals by Church of Ireland Archbishop Robin Eames and poet Seamus Heaney, a friend of the Brown family.
