Loaded pistols and primed pipe- bombs apparently were to be used by East Belfast UVF against rival drug gang
A UVF weapons haul discovered by police was apparently for immediate use in attacks on a rival drug-dealing gang which was refusing to pay protection money to the terrorist organisation.
Both security forces and loyalist paramilitary sources say that is why some of the eight recovered handguns were loaded and the three pipe-bombs were primed. Four suspected East Belfast UVF members (pictured below) have appeared in court charged with possessing the stash - former soldiers Bryce Pounder (34) and Noel Bambrick (49), and brothers William Baker (51) and Robin Baker (49). They deny any wrongdoing.
ABOVE: Bryce Pounder ex-squaddie Welsh Regiment former rifleman
ABOVE: Noel Bambrick ex-squaddie former Royal Irish Regiment (RIR) soldier
ABOVE: William Baker one of two brothers arrested in the PSNI crackdown on the East Belfast UVF last week
A senior figure in the terrorist organisation told the Sunday Life: "The fact the guns were loaded means they were about to be used. There is no doubt about that, and the guns and armunation would have been stored separately. "This is normal procedure as it ensures that if the guns are found by the PSNI, a person can only be charged with possession, and not the more serious possession with intent to endanger life, which is what those four boys have been charged with.
"The same goes for pipe-bombs - you don't make them and then leave them sitting around. They are nearly always made a few days before they are used."
This assessment from UVF insiders backs up what PSNI sources told the Sunday Life - that the handguns and explosives were to be used in drug-dealing and extortion rackets (if that is to be believed). However, sections of the loyalist paramilitary gang have played down claims that the East Belfast UVF unit is 'tooling up' in anticipation of a feud with a rival gang. Two major underworld figures - one a former UVF hitman and the other a hard-as-nails street-fighter - have some time been muscling in on criminal rackets in east Belfast.
FEARSOME
Both, who cannot be named because they are before the courts on serious criminal charges, have fearsome reputations and a major axe to grind with the UVF leadership in the area. It has been strongly suggested that a possible confrontation with the gang is the reason why the East Belfast UVF pooled together eight handguns and three pipe-bombs but it could also be they were preparing for some other immenient attack.
One of the fully loaded handguns recovered in the planned raids on the UVF suspects
But this has been downplayed by other UVF members who claim the arms haul was to be used in anti-protocol attacks. However, PSNI chiefs rejact this and insist the guns and explosives were to target their own community.
Tellingly, when former Army rifleman Bryce Pounder appeared in Belfast Magistrates Court last Monday charged with possessing the weapons, his rap sheet read they were to be used to "endanger life or property in the UK or Republic of Ireland". This supports the notion that they could have been for anti-protocol violence as loyalist paramilitary terrorists have threatened to target Irish government buildings on both sides of the border.
RECOVERED: Wembley revolver with a fully loaded magazine
Details of the major policing operation that led to the find were revealed in court, including how officers from the Paramilitary Crime Task Force unearthed the weapons after first raiding Noel Bambrick's home at Connswater Grove. Inside they discovered a Wembley revolver loaded with six bullets, pipe-bomb components and UVF jumpers and flags.
Bambrick, who previously served with the disbanded Royal Irish Regiment (RIR) a British Army unit exclusive to NI only. He denied any knowledge of the pipe-bomb device and disputed that the revolver recovered was a real firearm. He said the UVF jumpers were connected to an event to commemorate the contribution made to loyalism by the late Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) leader David Ervine.
One of the pipe-bombs recovered from both of the homes of the former British soldiers
Follow-up searches of Bryce Pounder's apartment another former British soldier with the Welsh Regiment, uncovered a pipe-bomb, handgun, silencer and assorted ammunition. Some of the material was found in a schoolbag and a holdall under the bed.
Pounder, who was arrested at another address, told police that menacing individuals instructed him to keep the holdall after he had amassed an £1,800 drug debt.
Former PUP leader David Ervine
A third raid at a house shared by brothers William and Robin Baker led to the discovery of a large quantity of ammunition, two pipe-bombs and two smoke grenades. The weapons were found stored behind plasterboard in a void between the living room and kitchen area.
During police interviews, William Baker claimed he had been given a bag of items to hold onto as a favour after problems with a neighbour holding all-night parties was resolved.
He also denied his brother Robin Baker, who was described in court as vulnerable, knew anything about the haul.
All four defendants were remanded in custody on charges of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life and in suspicious circumstances. The Baker brothers and Pounder are further accused of having explosives with intent to endanger life.
Loyalist sources have described the loss of the eight handguns and three pipe-bombs as a "body blow" to the East Belfast UVF. The pistols, they claim, would account for a significant proportion of the gang’s weaponry in the lower Newtownards Road area. Crucially though, the haul found by police does not include modern guns bought recently from Dublin-linked gangsters.
Last month senior UVF sources told the Sunday Life the organisation was reviewing the "basis" for its ceasefire, saying that "talk of joint authority has pushed the organisation to the edge". This followed warnings from the Loyalist Communities Council (LCC), which includes representatives of the UVF, UDA and the Red Hand Commando, about there being "dire consequences" if there was no movement on the protocol.
With many thanks to the: Sunday Life and Ciaran Barnes (Chief Reporter) for the original publication.
Follow these links to find out more on this story: East Belfast UVF: First pictures of gun accused amid feud fears
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