Extradition from Northern Ireland—Counterfeiting

The president of Northern Ireland’s Workers Party has been released on bail by the Belfast County Court in Ireland, pending his potential extradition to the United States on counterfeiting charges.^[1] Sean Garland, who is also an IRA Border Campaign veteran, is wanted in the United States on allegations that since the early 1990s he and others have “engaged in buying, transporting and either passing as genuine or reselling large quantities of high quality counterfeit $100 notes.”^[2] Furthermore, it is alleged that Mr. Garland had arranged for North Korean agencies to purchase “quantities of notes.”^[3]

Mr. Garland was arrested at the end of last month at his party’s annual conference after a warrant for his arrest had been issued on May 19.^[4] The British government opposed the bail application, arguing that there was a “substantial risk” that Mr. Garland would not return to face his extradition, instead opting to flee to the Republic of Ireland.^[5] The Recorder of Belfast, Judge Tom Burgess, however, released Mr. Garland on bail with the requirement that three sureties of £10,000 each were to be lodged with the court and that Mr. Garland was ordered to reside with a friend in Co Down.^[6]

Mr. Garland is something of a large figure in the IRA movement, stealing weapons from the British Army in 1954, surviving a 1957 raid on the Brookeborough police barracks, and surviving an assassination attempt two decades later.^[7]

Extradition from Northern Ireland is handled by the United Kingdom’s very controversial Extradition Act of 2003, which we have discussed here.

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[1] Henry McDonald, IRA Veteran Bailed over US Counterfeiting Charge, The Observer, Oct. 9, 2005, available here.
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] Id.
[7] Id.