Connolly (below) spends much of his time across the border, staying out of reach of the PSNI.
He previously told Sunday Life that he had renounced violence after serving a 14-year prison term for possessing a 220lb mortar bomb.
His close associate JJ McCusker was named as the second-in-command of the Continuity IRA at the 2003 trial of Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt, who was sentenced to 20 years for directing terrorism.
FBI agent David Rupert, who infiltrated McKevitt s gang, claimed the 1998 Omagh bomb, which killed 29 civilians and two unborn babies, was a joint operation between both dissident groups.
Two years after McKevitt was convicted of directing terrorism, JJ McCusker appeared in court charged with the Continuity IRA bombing of Lurgan golf club and trying to cause an explosion at Rosslea PSNI station.