The World - News from May 6, 1988

Britain and Ireland have launched a joint crackdown on smuggling across the Northern Ireland border that may be netting the outlawed Irish Republican Army up to $40 million a year to buy arms. “I regard smuggling as a major problem,” Irish Justice Minister Gerard Collins said in Dublin after meeting Britain’s Northern Ireland secretary, Tom King. They decided to act after receiving new information on the smuggling of goods from the north, ranging from whiskey to cattle, which can easily be sold in the Irish Republic, where they are more expensive. The Dublin and Belfast police chiefs described the IRA’s success in raising funds for arms purchases for the guerrillas fighting against British rule in the north.