UDA paramilitaries 'to renounce racketeering'

The loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Defence Association, was today due to reject drug dealing and other criminal activity in a statement which was being billed as the most important for the organisation in 30 years.

Loyalist sources today predicted the group would make a major announcement regarding its future at a press conference in east Belfast.

“This really is an important move,” a loyalist source said.

“The organisation will be addressing all the allegations that it has been tarred with in recent years.”

The UDA’s statement was expected to be made through its political associates in the Ulster Political Research Group.

The loyalist group was challenged earlier this month by Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy in the wake of the expulsion of supporters of the former UDA commander Johnny “Mad Dog” Adair to go down a purely political route.

The UDA has for decades been accused of racketeering and involvement in the drugs trade as well as orchestrating sectarian violence against Catholics.

After supporters of Mr Adair fled to Scotland, Mr Murphy said that loyalists faced a stark choice.

“People really have to make up their minds within the loyalist community as to what they support,” he argued.

“I believe the vast majority of people in those communities want political loyalism to be their badge, as it were, so that continues to make its mark and have its influence in the talks process.”

UDA leaders have been anxious to signal a new beginning for the group after the expulsion of Mr Adair’s allies from the North and the bitter internal feud which culminated in the death of its South Antrim brigadier John Gregg.

On Wednesday night, the organisation abandoned pipe bombs and alerted the security forces to their whereabouts as a signal of their intent to overhaul the image of the organisation.

However, Northern Ireland Office Security Minister Jane Kennedy claimed the move did not amount to an act of disarmament because it was not supervised by the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning.

There was also speculation today that the UDA would announce a major shake-up in its paramilitary structures.