February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The Police Service of Northern Ireland said it was investigating a “possible internal breach of security” in a British army section of Castlereagh police station. The man was later released without charge.
The East Belfast station was the site of a mysterious burglary on St. Patrick’s Day 2002 that saw material stolen from an office of Special Branch, the police intelligence section. On that occasion, several men walked past station security, entered the office, tied up a detective and spent around 20 minutes rifling through files.
An American citizen who worked as a cook in the Castlereagh complex, Larry Zaitschek, has been questioned twice about the break-in. He has denied involvement.
Police said they were initially stumped about the burglary, but eventually blamed the IRA. Unionists then said the incident showed the IRA was still prepared for an active campaign of violence and said it should preclude Sinn Fein from the power-sharing government in Belfast. That government collapsed several months later after further allegations of IRA spying.
In June 2002, the PSNI began extradition proceedings to bring Zaitschek back to Northern Ireland, claiming he was connected to the burglary, but more than two years later they have not completed papers for
submission to U.S. legal authorities.
Details about the latest incident were sketchy. Police said the security breach did not involve a break-in and the British army confirmed that the investigation centered on a military part of the complex.