IRELAND

SCOTS GANGS JOIN LOYALIST DRUGS FOR ARMS NETWORK

LOYALIST paramilitaries have established contacts with Scottish drug
dealers to bring large quantities of cocaine and heroin into Northern
Ireland to finance their terrorist activities.

The terrorists are using contacts with sympathisers in the Glasgow
underworld to develop a network to flood the province with powdered drugs.
The Ulster Defence Association and Ulster Volunteer Force both have
Scottish sections which have successfully supplied arms and explosives
during the Troubles.

Large consignments of the drugs are bought by criminal gangs in Glasgow
from dealers in Holland. The loyalists then buy what they need at highly
competitive prices. In return the loyalist groups will provide hitmen to
assassinate members of rival gangs.

There is evidence that cocaine and heroin are reaching Northern Ireland in
larger quantities than before. Police figures for 1996 showed that 136.5g
of opiates were seized, compared with just 8g in 1995.

The first seizure of crack cocaine in Northern Ireland was made in
Ballymena last July and it is also on sale in parts of Belfast,
Londonderry, Antrim and Lisburn. The price of cocaine has dropped sharply
from an initial £100 per gram to £60, indicating that dealers are making
savings by buying larger quantities and that the market is expanding.

In recent years senior figures within the UDA and UVF, the mainstream
loyalist organisations, have clashed in a series of local disputes over
drugs. They believe a sophisticated network could result in the
organisations becoming totally self-financing, rather like terrorist groups
in parts of South America.

That would enable them to purchase large consignments of arms if their
ceasefires end, or prepare them for a move into the more lucrative drugs
scene in Britain if they hold.

The profits available are huge. By joining a large cartel buying in bulk,
dealers can get a kilo of high quality cocaine for about £25,000. That can
then be mixed to make 5kg of reasonable quality that can be sold for
£130,000, giving a profit of more than 400%.

"In theory, these organisations could become self-financing in the
foreseeable future. That would have serious implications because they would
be in a position to buy weapons in much larger quantities," said a security
source.

"They could not succeed on their own because they have no credibility with
international drug dealers, but by working with some of the big players in
Scotland they overcome that hurdle and avoid the risk of being ripped off
by being supplied with substandard drugs.

"It is a very dangerous alliance because the Scottish gangs share the
political views of the loyalist paramilitaries and are anxious to do as
much as they can to support what they see as the 'war effort'. The element
of political motivation will also reduce the likelihood of informants
coming forward."

Experts who work with young people taking drugs say there has been a
significant rise in the number who have used or been offered cocaine.

Crack cocaine, made by baking cocaine powder into small white chips, is
highly addictive and users can quickly develop psychological dependency.

Frank McGoldrick, director of the Belfast-based Research Group on Chemical
Dependency, said the attraction of powdered drugs is increasing because the
quality of ecstasy on offer is poor. While the availability of heroin is
increasing at a slower rate than cocaine, McGoldrick fears both drugs could
soon be in widespread demand.

"Commentators often say that Northern Ireland does not have the kind of
drugs culture needed to sustain cocaine and heroin, but that is a fallacy,"
he said.

"There is a real danger that the demand for both drugs will expand
dramatically if they become widely available."