A feud between two loyalist paramilitary groups has increased tensions in Portadown in the run-up to the Drumcree Orange march.
At the weekend the outlawed Ulster Volunteer Force announced that it had regrouped and launched a major recruiting drive in the mid-Ulster area.
The decision by the UVF to return to what some are describing as a "war footing" is seen as an attempt to push the more hardline Loyalist Volunteer Force out of the area and regain control of Portadown during the Drumcree crisis.
Intelligence sources now believe the regrouping could trigger a feud with the LVF. There are also growing concerns that a resurgent UVF could increase the risk of violence in Portadown over the Drumcree period.
Portadown has been an LVF stronghold since Billy Wright split with the UVF in August 1996. The LVF quickly gained a reputation for ruthlessness as it engaged in a sectarian murder campaign across mid-Ulster.
Yesterday the UVF accused the LVF of waging a "bluff war through the media", claiming that mid-Ulster had always been an UVF area. The LVF, it said, was "nothing more than drug dealers and common criminals".
The UVF also claimed that many LVF members were now joining their organisation.
The LVF, meanwhile, rejected claims of defections to the UVF. It described the reformed UVF unit as comprising "ceasefire soldiers and armchair grand-dads" who would not be "permitted to hold or exercise authority at any time during the marching season".
The statement said the LVF was "too deeply aware of the UVF treachery involved in the death of Billy Wright to countenance for a moment input from this so called `reformed UVF'."
The LVF statement ended with the warning: "Ceasefire soldiers beware - the time of your toleration is growing short."
A former LVF intermediary with the decommissioning body, Pastor Kenny McClinton, confirmed that hardliners had reacted angrily to the UVF announcement. "There is a lot of anger and tension in Portadown at present. I had difficulty in calming things down following the UVF announcement."
The possibility of an LVF-UVF feud will further stretch the security forces in Portadown as they prepare for the Drumcree Orange march.