Man jailed over Real IRA gun-smuggling plot

Campbell was convicted after a sting operation by the Lithuanian security service, the VSD, and Britain’s MI5, during which he was secretly filmed and recorded.

Lithuanian prosecutors say they have never had a case like it, writes reporter Carl Dinnen for Channel 4 News.

Today in Vilnius, Michael Campbell was convicted of trying to buy weapons for the Real IRA. Campbell was found guilty of possessing and attempting to smuggle weapons and membership of a terrorist organisation. He smiled in court after the verdict, but has been sentenced to 12 years less the four he has already spent in jail.

Sting operation

The people he had thought he was buying from were agents of the Lithuanian security service, the VSD. They secretly filmed and recorded Campbell’s exchanges with their agents. It was a sting operation set up in conjunction with the British security service MI5.

In 2005, the Real IRA approached a man known in this case as Robert Jardine. Jardine (not his real name) was a small-time cigarette smuggler. He did business in the Baltic states. RIRA asked him if he could source weapons too. But Jardine was an MI5 agent. He had been recruited because of his closeness to certain dissident republicans. When RIRA gave Jardine a “shopping list” of weaponry, he passed it on to his MI5 handler. The handler set up the Lithuanian operation.

Campbell initially met a Lithuanian agent known to him as “Tomas”. “Tomas” said he could not supply all of the weapons, but he knew a man who could. Campbell and his associates christened this new supplier “Rambo”.

Bombing London

They met Rambo in Lithuania and in Spain. In the Lithuanian countryside they tried out a variety of high-grade weaponry. They were photographed by the VSD. Campbell was being recorded when he and an associate discussed what they might do with the armaments. He talked about bombing London.

And Campbell was being filmed when he met Rambo in a lock-up in Vilnius to view his purchases. He tells Rambo he wants a Barratt sniper rifle to shoot at ‘Brits’ from across the Irish border. He discusses booby trapping cars. He eventually reveals that he is working for what he calls the IRA. As Campbell left the lock-up up he was arrested by the Lithuanian authorities. He now faces eight years in a Lithuanian prison.

They have put behind bars a senior member of the Real IRA. Security official

A senior security official said: “The conviction of Michael Campbell is the result of a successful joint operation between the security service and the Lithuanian authorities.

“Working closely together, along with a selfless and brave agent, they have put behind bars a senior member of the Real IRA whose intention was to kill innocent members of the public in Northern Ireland and in Britain.”

Appeal

When asked if her client would appeal his conviction Campbell’s lawyer answered “Oh yes!”

He maintains he was entrapped by MI5. Two of his alleged associates in the conspiracy, Liam Campbell and Brendan McGuigan, are being sought for extradition from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland respectively. They deny the charges. The agent “Robert Jardine” has been given a new identity and a new life by MI5.

The two-month trial in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius was told Campbell had been overheard discussing a bombing campaign in London. He was charged with attempting to smuggle guns and explosives, illegally possessing firearms and seeking to aid a terrorist organisation.

Campbell, from Co Louth in the Republic of Ireland, had denied the charges and rejected allegations he was a member of the Real IRA, which carried out the 1998 Omagh bombing, in which 29 people were killed.