UVF leaders have authorised weapons dumps to be re-opened as they prepare for a Protocol doomsday. UVF terrorist units across the north have been placed on standby as they await the verdict on the controversial legislation due to go through parliament which, if passed, will effectively rip up parts of the EU Withdrawal Treaty.
The Sunday World understands terror chiefs are preparing to put the organisation on a "war footing"
But the question still remains 'that noone is able to answer' a war with whom?
PUP leader Billy Hutchinson, top left, along with Winston Irvine, top right, and Jamie Bryson, below.
It had been thought the leadership had rowed back from continuing with their campaign of violence over the Protocol after community groups in loyalist areas were warned state funding would be at risk.
INITIATED
The Irish Government has already initiated a full-scale audit of all grant aid issued by Dublin since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. The British have already indicated there are no plans for them to follow a similar path but loyalist leaders have been left in no doubt that civic disruption will have consequences on their own communities. And at a time when communities are struggling with the cost of living crisis and many families are now reliant on foodbanks, they risk alienating their own communities against them. But the Sunday World understands the leadership feels it has little choice, having taken the position that the Protocol must go. There is a strong likelihood the controversial legislation put before parliament at the start of last week will not garner enough support to pass into law.
LOYALIST: Terrorist chiefs open up weapons dumps and put UVF units on standby.
CHANNELS
The bill sets out green and (orange) red channels for goods flowing between the North and GB, with the government stating it also protects the EU open market but fails to state it also gives the DUP a veto on the future workings of the NI protocol. But it has drawn stinging criticism from all but the unionist parties at Stormont as well as the British Labour Party in Westminster and the majority of the British press in England, all of whom have accused Boris Johnson’s administration of flagrantly breaking International law.
It is against this backdrop that the UVF leadership is preparing for a renewal of its armed struggle. "They feel they have no choice," said our source, "and, as we all know, they have access to guns. There might have been decommissioning back in the day but not everything was handed over and they have been re-arming for years."
There has even been speculation that weaponry from a huge arms consignment smuggled into the province from South Africa in 1988 could be accessed. The cache, which was split between the UVF, UDA and Ulster Resistance, was partially intercepted but it is estimated a third of the consignment got through and was consealed in loyalist sealed arms dumps.
Is this what UVF boss Winston 'Winkie' Irvine and his co-accused Robin Workman were up to when arrested last week. We're they opening up the UVF weapons dumps and re-arming UVF terrorist units in the north Belfast area?
Largely in the hands of the shadowy Ulster Resistance, the guns and ammunition are being preserved for a "doomsday scenario".
"That could be closer than we think," said our source, "if the Brexit sea border is not removed *orthern Ireland is effectively cut off from the rest of the UK - if that's not a doomsday scenario for loyalists, I don't know what is."
The DUP has stated there is no prospect of a return to Stormont while the Protocol remains in place, but the prospect of legal action from the EU and no guarantees of enough support in the House of Commons and even less so in the House of Lords (not a hope in hell in the Lords actually), the best they can hope for is negotiated change, which is what has been said from the very beginning its between the EU and GB the Stormont parties have no say in the negotiations.
But the UVF and the shadowey loyalist paramilitary umbrella group the Loyalist Communities Council stating that nothing but its abolition will do, observers believe a return to some form of violent campaign is inevitable. The rise in tensions come at the end of a week in which two prominent loyalists appeared in court on charges relating to the seizure of an arms cache in Belfast earlier this month.
Belfast Magistrates Court heard that police believe a man (Robin Workman) accused of firearms offences transported a haul of weapons to a meeting with high-profile loyalist Winston Irvine. Robin Workman (51), from the Shore Road in Larne, was denied bail. Workman, along with Irvine, were arrested the previous week as police were investigating a security alert that led to Irish government Minister Simon Coveney being evacuated from a peace event. Irvine appeared in court charged firearms offences last Saturday.
Workman was charged with possession of a firearm in suspicious circumstances, possession of a prohibited firearm, possession of a handgun without a certificate and possession of ammunition without a certificate.
AT the time: Shortly after the the security alert involving Mr Irvine it was implied in the Belfast Telegraph that the UVF boss, Irvine was transporting these weapons to be decommissioned with the full knowledge of Assistant Chief Constable Bobby Singleton.
CONNECT
A PSNI detective inspector told the court that he could connect Workman to the charges.
During the hearing, a defence lawyer asked the officer if it was accurate that during Irvine's weekend court appearance, his counsel had suggested he was acting as "some form of decommissioning interlocutor".
The officer said that had been implied by Irvine's lawyer.
Winston Irvine's SUV being recovered by police in investigation into the arms and ammunition find.
Irvine was arrested and his SUV was seized (Image above), in Disraeli Street after police officers observed meeting the driver of a red VW van, and officers discovered a number of firearms, magazines and more than 200 rounds of ammunition in a holdall in the boot of his SUV. Workman was arrested in Ballymena later the same day.
"The police case is this has all the hallmarks of a paramilitary operation," a police officer told the court. "The quantity of what was found includes a large range of different calibre ammunition."Our concern would be that we have recovered a wide range of ammunition with weapons that they are not compatible with so believe there are other weapons available that this ammunition would marry up with.
"Our case is that the applicant transported them to the meeting with his co-accused to be handed over.
"He therefore has knowledge of the (arms dumps) storage locations of other weapons where this arms cache was recovered from."
A defence lawyer said Workman had denied during three days of questioning police interview that he was the individual who'd met Irvine in Belfast.
He added: "This case should be distinguished entirely from his co-accused.
SUSPECTED: UVF activists, Robin Workman, circled in red, above top, and Winston Irvine, unmasked above.
His co-accused is somewhat of a high-profile individual. He made the case that he will be calling a galaxy of witnesses to attest to his efficacy and his works in the peace process. "This man is not like that, he is a self-employed joiner with no criminal record whatsoever."
The district judge denied bail. Both men have been remanded in custody to appear again on July 1st.
With many thanks to the: Sunday World and Richard Sullivan for the EXCLUSIVE original story.
Follow these links to find out more on this story: PSNI/RUC Assistant Chief Constable and Winston Irvine did not talk about decommissioning weapons before arms find, court told.
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