[ad_1]
LONDON: Hezbollah provided the New IRA with finances and arms shipments, according to an undercover agent who infiltrated the Irish terror group.
Former British Secret Service agent Denis McFadden made the assessment after spying on the New IRA from within for more than 20 years.
Irish and British security services suspect that the New IRA’s ties to Iranian-backed Hezbollah may have led to the importation of weapons, including mortars and assault rifles.
MI5 agent McFadden is now under witness protection after his work led to the arrest of 10 people in Northern Ireland on terrorism-related charges.
Their operation found that Hezbollah and the New IRA opened communications around 2017. The New IRA members then traveled to Lebanon in 2018 to meet with Hezbollah representatives, where British security services suspect they acquired the weapons.
Saoradh, the political wing of the New IRA, has long supported Iran, Hezbollah’s main international ally and backer.
Following the assassination of Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani by the United States in January this year, Saoradh representatives signed a book of condolences at the Iranian embassy in Dublin.
Hezbollah is known to have fostered relationships with terrorist organizations and criminal groups throughout the Middle East and beyond.
The Project Against Extremism highlights Hezbollah’s extensive cooperation in smuggling “people and smuggling” into the United States with Mexican drug cartels and their exploitation of cocaine trafficking in Colombia.
Hezbollah also maintained a relationship with the Spanish terrorist group Eta until it disbanded.
