Irish Police say they’ve followed a paper trail showing millions of pounds of IRA money was laundered through the Isle of Man.

The Irish Criminal Assets Bureau says the Provisional IRA was building a financial empire to fund the movement's political activities.

The organisation bought a chain of pubs in the UK using cash from a VAT fraud on gaming machines in London. The money was transferred to the Isle of Man from where the properties were bought.

The CAB investigation has targeted five individuals and a team is working full-time on unearthing their alleged financial irregularities.

More than a hundred boxes of documents are currently lying in the Cab's headquarters in Dublin arising from seizures in the course of the investigation.