Man arrested over New IRA bomb-making activities

Police investigating the New IRA’s bomb-making activities have arrested a 52-year-old man in Londonderry.

It follows a search in the Creggan area as part of an operation targeting the dissident republican group’s storage of explosive devices and equipment.

Police said they “seized a considerable amount of material for further examination” in Thursday’s operation.

PSNI district commander Ch Supt Darrin Jones believed youths in the area were “manipulated” into disrupting searches.

“We strongly believe that sinister elements connected to violent dissident republicans manipulated local youths into attacking police and disrupting today’s search activity,” he said.

“It is also our understanding that they attempted to disrupt local services into the area but were unsuccessful despite some localised disorder.”

He added: “It is detestable that our young people are being used in this manner.”

He appealed to parents and guardians to be “mindful of where their children are and what they are doing”.

Sinn Féin said police had questions to answer over use of “heavy handed tactics on women” during the security operation.

The party cited footage on social media which shows three officers restraining a woman on the ground following an altercation.

As the PSNI said last August, Operation Arbacia targeting the New IRA, the most dangerous dissident republican group, would branch out.

An arrest on Thursday has targeted that organisation’s bomb-making efforts.

Last year a government security report warned of a “growing sophistication” in devices which were discovered, ready for use, largely in Derry and the surrounding area.

The threat posed by dissident republicans has been blunted in the past 12 months.

But the police have stated on several occasions that the New IRA, which has been reorganising after the arrest of its alleged leadership in Operation Arbacia, remains intent on mounting attacks.

Speaking earlier on Thursday, Det Ch Supt Raymond Murray said the arrest of a man as part of Operation Ledging was significant.

He said this was a “discrete, stand-alone strand” of the operation, as part of the PSNI’s wider investigations into the New IRA, which is named Operation Arbacia.

Operation Arbacia is a surveillance-led operation targeting dissident republican activities.

“The New IRA continues to pose a very real danger, most especially to the communities in the areas where they construct and store their bombs and guns,” Det Ch Supt Murray said.

“They have a chilling indifference to hiding lethally dangerous weapons and bombs in places where local people can easily stumble across them.”