UDA exploiting talks with Britain

The British government has been in fruitless talks for over a year with UDA gangs about moving away from organised paramilitary activity, it has beeen reported.

According to the Sunday Life, the South East Antrim UDA have been in talks “to pursue legitimate lifestyles, or to continue with their involvement in criminality, free from the structures of a paramilitary organisation”.

Loyalist paramilitary gangs in the north of Ireland are among the largest crime gangs in the world, receiving indirect funding from government agencies and non-governmental organisations as well as the proceeds of crime.

The South East Antrim UDA, which largely avoids sectarian conflict, makes millions of pounds every year from selling drugs and taxing dealers alone.

it controls crime territory from Larne to north Belfast, taking in parts of Ballymena and Antrim. The gang is believed to have been responsible for three recent murders, including the feud shootings of rival loyalists Geordie Gilmore and Colin Horner, and the beating to death of innocent civilian Glenn Quinn.

Reports have claimed its representatives have been in touch with British government officials over 18 months about issuing a public statement “opposing criminality”, but without result.

A division supposedly exists between the younger drug dealing ‘hawks’ who effectively control the paramilitary gang, and older ‘doves’ who support a ‘transition’ strategy which they have claimed would see the organisation move away from criminality.

It is the latter group who reportedly began using mediators in late 2023 to ask government agencies for greater public funding for community projects in return for ‘transition’.

However, there are fears that it is a ruse to win more public funding to fill the pockets of active paramilitaries.

And according to the Sunday Life, UDA crime bosses may also just be paying lip service to the plan to curry favour with the authorities and the police. It is believed to be no coincidence that PSNI has made no attempt to move against the SEA crime gang kingpins since the talks began in the summer of 2023.

“UDA members are still up to their b***s in selling drugs, taxing dealers and extorting businesses — they are just not as blatant about it as before,” said one loyalist.

Urgent Appeal