IRA may be buying prime Bulgarian land

Young nephews of  Thomas "Slab" Murphy, the alleged former chief of staff of  the Provisional IRA, registered two companies in Bulgaria in 2007 and started buying up prime development real estate.

Aiden and Stephen Murphy, sons of Murphy’s two brothers, early last year, registered companies they called "A. M." and "B. D." with the same Burgas address of 8 Mara Gidik Street. The cousins both listed as their home address their uncle’s farm in the village of Ballybinaby, Hackballs Cross,  in northeast Ireland’s County Louth.

In October 2005, officers of the British Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) and the Irish Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) raided a number of Murphy family businesses and the High Court granted the ARA the right to freeze nine family properties worth more than 1.5 million pounds. Authorities believe the family’s extensive enterprises are funded in part from proceeds of smuggling cigarettes, oil, grain and pigs. An ARA statement of Nov. 21, 2006 alleges money laundering and fuel smuggling.

Police say that cigarette smuggling gave Murphy contacts inside Bulgaria, which is a transit point for illegal cigarettes coming into Europe. IRA cigarette smugglers have worked this route for a decade.

In March 2006 operation Irish and British soldiers and revenue and customs officials combined in a rad of Murphy family property around Manchester. They recovered at least 200,000 Euros in cash stuffed into plastic bags, 30,000 smuggled cigarettes and two firearms. A fleet of tanker-trucks believed to be used to transport laundered fuel was seized as well. Some trucks bore the livery of multi-national fuel companies, meaning they could be driven cross-country without arousing suspicion. Four laundering facilities attached to a major network of storage tanks, some of which were underground, also were found.

Last November, Murphy was arrested in Dundalk and charged the next day with failing to file tax forms. He was released on bail and faces trial before a special criminal court in Dublin.

Murphy, 58, a single man who inherited a nickname from his impressively large father, lives on a  farm situated close to the border of Ireland and Great Britain. He has used East European contacts to bring in weapons for the IRA, officials believe. Despite the official suspicion and links, Murphy sued the Sunday Times for libel when it printed in 1987 that he’d directed a bombing campaign in Britain for the IRA. The case was thrown out. 

“Yeah, it’s true, we registered the companies,” said Philip Chikov, an owner of C&I Legal Partners in Bugas, when asked about A.M. and B.D.. The T & T Consulting Group owned by Tomy Mitev holds a warrant of attorney to manage the A.M. firm of 22-year-old Aiden Murphy. The nephews also have become clients of Bulbank, Bulgaria’s largest bank, and they bought land last year on the Black Sea coast, according to the lawyers. A.M. bought about 10,000 square meters of property in the village of  Roudnik, close to Burgas, for 15,000 Euros.

Later the firm spent 60,000 Euros on land zoned for rural use that features a panoramic view of the Burgas bay area. The land next door to this property is owned by Seagle Ltd, a new company owned by Martin and Paul Kirk, two more nephews of Thomas Murphy, the sons of his sister. They also live in County Louth.

Ann Kirk, their mother and Murphy’s sister, was EO of Trillfield Ltd., an oil trade company that Murphy also worked for until it ran into problems with the Irish government in the early 1990s over tax evasion and was liquidated.

The Kirk brothers set up Seagle the same day their cousins were registering their firms and they used the same trading address in Burgas of 8 Mara Gidik Street.

Records show that 21 residents from the border area between North Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have set up companies since late 2006 using this address.

In March of last year, Aiden Murphy’s A.M. company bought another 4,000 square meters of land for 150,000 Euros near Kukurevo, a rapidly development area housing the largest ski resort east of the Alps. This property is near a ski and hotel resort, managed by an Irish property development company with a Sofia branch that is next door to C and I Legal Partners. That proximity is just a coincidence, the law partners said.