Six arrested in NI murder investigation

Six men have now been arrested in Lancashire and Belfast today by police investigating the murder of a loyalist paramilitary commander in Northern Ireland.

Jailed terror boss Johnny “Mad Dog” Adair’s most senior lieutenant was among three suspects seized during raids on three houses in Bolton, sources said.

Greater Manchester Police assisted officers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland in the operation.

It is believed they were addresses used by a group of people from the Shankill area of north Belfast who fled to England after Ulster Defence Association leader John Gregg was shot dead in February.

He and a second man, Robert Carson, died in an ambush after getting off a ferry on their way home from a Glasgow Rangers football match in February.

The shooting was linked to a bitter feud between rival factions in Belfast.

Among those living in Bolton was Adair’s wife Gina and some of his closest allies during the brutal power struggle with Gregg and other mainstream UDA chiefs.

Even though all supporters of the rogue faction were thought to have left Northern Ireland, detectives probing the killings later arrested another three men from the Shankill area.

A UDA source in Belfast claimed: “There are still a lot of worms under stones around here, they are just being secretive about it.”