One of Britain’s most important agents inside the IRA, “Stakeknife”, has been arrested by detectives investigating 18 murders during the Northern Ireland Troubles.

Republican and security sources in Belfast confirmed on Tuesday that a 72-year-old man detained by police officers working on Operation Kenova was Freddie Scappaticci.

Accused of being the IRA’s chief spycatcher, the Belfast man is accused of being a double agent who was working for the security forces while overseeing the murder of informers within the republican movement.

A spokesperson for Operation Kenova said the 72-year-old was arrested at “an undisclosed location” and would be interviewed by its investigation team.

Police are understood to have raided the house of Scappaticci’s estranged wife in Belfast at the same time as he was taken in elsewhere.



“No further details of the place of arrest or where he is being held will be released due to security reasons.”

The spokesperson refused to confirm or deny that the man in custody was Scappaticci, a veteran Belfast republican who has been living in hiding since it was alleged he worked as a British spy for 25 years.

Scappaticci was outed as the British agent known as Stakeknife in 2003, following an investigation by journalists in Northern Ireland. He appeared briefly at a press conference at his solicitor’s offices, to deny the claim, and then vanished, probably into a witness protection scheme in Britain.

He is said to have appeared briefly at his 98-year-old father’s funeral in west Belfast last year. People who said they saw him described him as looking fit and relaxed.

Operation Kenova is seeking out alleged victims of the double agent, including members of the IRA who were questioned, tortured and interrogated by the secret unit inside the Provisionals allegedly led by Scappaticci.

Led by the former counter-terrorism detective John Boutcher, the chief constable of Bedfordshire, the independent police operation has a budget of £30m.

Sources in Belfast said they were told he was being questioned specifically about the murder of a loyalist in the city during the 1980s. However, they said they believed he would face further questions over his alleged role in running the IRA’s internal security unit known as the “nutting squad”, which tracked down alleged informers in the organisation’s ranks, interrogated, tortured and, in most cases, killed those accused of betrayal.

The “Stakeknife” scandal is centred on the allegation that while Britain’s key spy was working covertly for the security forces he was heading a terrorist unit that committed murders. Scappaticci is allegedly being linked directly to 18 murders of IRA members accused of being informers, with his unit responsible for 30 deaths overall.

A number of families of IRA members shot dead as informers have made separate complaints to Northern Ireland’s police ombudsman, claiming that Scappaticci’s handlers in the security forces failed to use their agent to prevent the murders.

Many of the families claim their loved ones were “sacrificed” by the security forces to keep Scappaticci at the head of the IRA’s counterintelligence unit, from where he could provide the state with valuable information.

A number of families from the loyalist side of the divide in Northern Ireland have spoken to Operation Kenova alleging that the spy played a central role in plots to kill their loved ones during the Troubles.

One British Army general described “Stakeknife” as “our jewel in the crown” among agents operating inside the IRA.