A former IRA prisoner is being held in jail in the US after being arrested during an interview with immigration officials.
Ciaran Ferry, from Andersonstown, Belfast, is being held at Englewood federal correctional institution in Colorado.
The 30-year-old was arrested in Denver on January 30 after he arrived for an interview at the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS).
Ferry is understood to have entered the US on a 90-day visa waiver but had applied for a green card on the basis of his marriage to an American citizen.
But it is understood that Ferry was detained by FBI officers who wanted information on IRA activity in Boston and New York.
Last night Englewood confirmed that Ferry was being held in the jail, from where he is expected to be deported.
The INS claimed that Ferry was ineligible for a green card, given that he had been a member of a paramilitary organisation.
The west Belfast man married former Noraid fund-raiser Heaven Sheehan after moving to Denver, Colorado, following his release from the Maze in 2000.
Ferry and two others were stopped by police on the M1 motorway on St Patrick's Day 1993.
Officers discovered two AK47 assault rifles and
ammunition inside the vehicle.
Ferry was later convicted of conspiring to kill. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison but was released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
