Dispute spells end of loyalist group
A notorious loyalist paramilitary unit is crumbling amid new talks to end a violent feud among rival organisations in Northern Ireland, it was claimed tonight.
Informed sources said senior members of the Ulster Defence Association’s ruthless C Company in west Belfast were deserting the leadership.
One claimed: “All the top men are bolting and things are closing in on those left.”
The UDA’s ruling inner council ousted its commanders in West Belfast over allegations of siding with the splinter Loyalist Volunteer Force in a savage dispute which has left three men dead.
But intense efforts to end the blood-letting moved closer today when bosses in the two organisations met in a bid to broker a truce.
An unofficial ceasefire has been installed on the streets of Belfast over the past weeks as the two sides took tentative steps towards ending their shooting war.
“The ground has been created for a resolution and the fact that they met is a good sign,” one source said.
Festering tensions within loyalist paramilitaries exploded last month when LVF man Stephen Warnock was shot dead in Newtownards, Co Down.
Days later the UDA’s East Belfast leader Jim Gray survived a retaliation shooting.
Since then there have been nine attacks, with another two men killed, as both sides waged a fierce fight over drugs and territory.
But the LVF’s move towards talking peace with its rivals was interpreted as signalling it had severed links with the UDA’s ostracised C Company.
Operating out of the hardline Lower Shankill estate in West Belfast, it was dealt a major blow when the finance officer who controlled up to £1 million in cash went missing.
Although some claimed he fled after an internal investigation was launched, others now believe he has gone to Scotland to purchase property in the Edinburgh and Kilmarnock areas.
“This is a precursor in case everything goes belly-up for the leadership,” one claimed.
And it is now believed another two top UDA men in West Belfast have disappeared after striking a £30,000 deal with the North Belfast brigade.
With the LVF’s ties to C Company loosening, moves to end the blood-letting have been stepped up.
“The LVF was in a no-win situation,” one source claimed.
“They are trying to resolve the feud in east Belfast but they won’t do that with the blessing of C Company’s leadership.”
If a settlement can be reached then the UDA may try to re-integrate the expelled brigade without C Company.
A senior UDA source said: “Everybody wants West Belfast back, but not those who caused the problems.”
