The Five Demands

East Belfast UVF gang’s £100k crime haul seized (Belfast Telegraph)

The criminal activities of a UVF gang in east Belfast will fall under the spotlight again when the Policing Board meets tomorrow.

The Belfast Telegraph understands that the PSNI is to give an update on a continuing investigation – and will reveal details about cash, drugs and tobacco seized.

According to one source it will amount to a combined figure of around £100,000.

The brutal shooting of Jemma McGrath and the painting of paramilitary ‘war’ murals in east Belfast has meant a sharper focus on the UVF in that part of the city.

Detectives in the PSNI organised crime department as well as district officers are involved in a prolonged investigation.

The information to be outlined at tomorrow’s Board meeting is seen as an example of the type of crime the UVF is involved in rather than the full scale of activity.

But the source told this newspaper that he feared the figures could look “pitiful” given “the perceived scale of activity”.

UVF leaders in east Belfast are well known and no longer under the control of the Shankill-based central leadership.

The gang has its base on the Newtownards Road and in the nearby Sydenham area.

Numerous sources can name the leaders, including the suspected gunman in the Jemma McGrath shooting. UVF members in east Belfast are also being named and linked to violence in that part of the city last Thursday.

It came as the ‘Brighton Bomber’ Patrick Magee spoke at a reconciliation event at the Skainos Centre.

Magee was jailed for the 1984 bombing in which the IRA attempted to kill Margaret Thatcher at the Conservative party conference.

FACTFILE

Information to be given to the Policing Board will detail PSNI seizures from the east belfast UVF believed to include:

Cash seized: £60,000
Drugs with a street value of £20,000
Tobacco worth £20,000