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IRA denies ties to DeLorean

DUBLIN, Ireland -- The outlawed Irish Republican Army denied Tuesday any ties to auto manufacturer John DeLorean and branded the accused drug dealer a 'gangster' who helped Britain undermine the group in Northern Ireland.

'We do not take lightly Mr. DeLorean's lies, nor will we forget them should he ever bump into us,' the IRA said in a statement released by the Irish Republican Publicity Bureau.

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'In Ireland we treat as an offense anyone who falsely uses the name of the Irish Republican Army to impress people, abuse people or extricate themselves from situations of their own making,' it said.

'The Irish Republican Army repudiates in the strongest possible terms that it has or ever had any dealings with the gangster John DeLorean,' said the IRA.

'Indeed, from the outset we analyzed and publicly stated that the DeLorean venture was part and parcel of a British government counter-insurgency project aimed at undermining our base in West Belfast through the bribe of jobs and prosperity,' it said.

In response to the IRA statement, DeLorean's attorney Joseph Ball said in Los Angeles, 'It is a great compliment to Mr. DeLorean to have the IRA, that group of terrorists, call him a gangster.

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'So you can see he was no friend of the IRA,' Ball said.

In Los Angeles Monday, an affidavit submitted in court by prosecutors said DeLorean, 57, boasted of a 'very tight relationship' with the IRA, which DeLorean reportedly said would help him finance a cocaine deal to save his sports car company.

But the IRA said it had opposed the establishment of DeLorean's Belfast sports car plant, set up in Northern Ireland 2 years ago with the help of British government grants and loans totaling $136 million.

The collapse this year of the auto manufacturing venture 'disastrously affected' young people in the economically depressed British province, the IRA said.

DeLorean was arrested Oct. 19 on drug charges during a meeting with American undercover agents in Los Angeles. He was released on $10 million bail pending his trial April 19.

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