SUPER dollar

Yesterday three men were convicted of a so-called tiger robbery in Dublin. A family was held hostage while a security guard was forced to hand over €2.28 million. One of those convicted is Christopher Corcoran who was mentioned in the 2004 Grand Jury indictment that also mentioned ex-IRA leader Sean Garland as a key player in a plot to sell forged €100 notes. Known as Superdollars, because of their very high quality, they can only be detected by forensic tests. It is thought that they are printed in North Korea, although conspiracy theories abound. Operation Mali, launched in the UK in 1998, saw three conspirators jailed including a former KGB officer David Levin. Investigators, who included two undercover US agents posing as a cigarette smugglers, discovered evidence that linked the plot to the Official IRA. Corcoran was arrsted in 2001 on the foot of warrants from UK police, while US authorities have made attempts to bring Sean Garland to a US court. Garland's case is currently before the High Court and is due for hearing again in October. Read the indictment here. There's a full account of the affair in The Fraudsters.