“it does not raise a concern with me that they have a new supply..”

Police have confirmed that Semtex was used in the weekend attack on officers in County Fermanagh. And Deputy Chief Constable Paul Leighton is quoted in the BBC report.

Deputy Chief Constable Paul Leighton said he did not know where the Semtex had come from, but “for me it looks as if it came from old stocks”. “As far as I am aware it is the first time they have used Semtex. “It does not appear to be new Semtex, so it does not raise a concern with me that they have a new supply of Semtex.” DCC Leighton said he did not know how the plastic explosives ended up in the hands of dissident republicans. “It is significant in the sense that there was Semtex in the explosive charge. It did not go off but there was Semtex there – where it came from I don’t know,” he said. “It is similar to devices that used to be used in the province by other groups.”

And, as well as the Irish Times report, an additional quote from Paul Leighton in the iol report.

“But when it (Semtex) was passed over to different groups, how it came to be in their possession, I don’t know at this point in time.”

Pete Baker