New IRA ‘has recruited dozens of dissidents and has locations of old arms dumps’

Hundreds of dissidents are feared to have signed up to a new Republican terror group amid mounting anger over Brexit .

One source told the Mirror that groups including the New IRA have up to 200 active members, including some paramilitaries with years of experience during the Troubles.

Concerns over a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, plus broader concerns over our split from the EU, are feared to have radicalised younger Republicans.

And a source said the New IRA has dozens of new members who have taken the “oath” – based on the text laid out in the old Provisional IRA green book.

The New IRA, blamed for a car bomb in Derry last month, has been handed locations of old IRA arms dumps never disclosed during the decommissioning process after the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

They have AKM assault rifles, sub-machine guns, handguns and large quantities of commercial explosives including Semtex.

It is believed they also have newer weapons smuggled in more recently.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland has called for back-up in the event of a hard border.

It is reported 1,000 officers from Scotland and England are being trained for deployment along the border in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

One former Republican commander said: “Dissidents north and south are united in a way not seen before.

"There are around 200 active dissidents with experience and 100 or so auxiliaries.

“There are 500 sworn members. The support network seems solid and rising.

"We are seeing the people in the south uniting to join forces with the north.

"The north was such a bastion for so long while the south was seen as not wanting to bother.

"That’s changed. Brexit has been the best Republican recruitment tool for years.”

The source said the dissidents are well equipped and have taken steps against infiltration.

They said of the weaponry: ”It’s good quality and there’s plenty of it. They have more gear than people.

"They also have access to large quantities of cash for planning and counter-intelligence. The money comes from smuggling.

“All the signs and rumours are that the News will go for broke in the hours and days after Brexit.”

But a Provisional IRA source said of the New IRA: “Active they would have 50 men, tops, who are capable.

"And even then only 20 who are really good. They would have around 200 supporters who would provide the back-up.”

He confirmed the green book was being used and members were taking the “oath”, particularly in rural areas.

He added not everyone was being “green-booked” as some volunteers are “trash” and “you wouldn’t want to bring them into the ranks”.

The source does not expect an immediate “big push” after Brexit but warned it will become a factor in radicalising a new generation.

He said: “It won’t be dissidents, it will be the IRA, the Provos, who will have finally come to accept that the British Government sold them a pup and realise there is nothing in this for them so they will go back to war.

“The EU was seen as an honest broker in ratifying the peace, that’s how it was sold, it ratified protections in law and allowed families of people murdered by loyalists and the State to seek justice or closure in the European Court of Human Rights.

"And within five years, once people realise that the Brits are just pandering to the loyalists and the DUP, then that will be it.”

Former senior dissident republican John Connelly, jailed for 14 years for a Real IRA bomb plot, warned last month a hard border would create conditions for a “massive recruitment drive”.

And he claimed any infrastructure like spy cameras on the border would be seen as a mark of a “foreign occupying military force”.

A study released last month by Professors Mark Brennan and Pat Dolan, of UNESCO, warned violence was “inevitable” if a hard border returns to the island of Ireland.

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