Four men have been arrested for questioning about the murder of top loyalist paramilitary John Gregg after arriving back in Northern Ireland from Scotland.
One of ousted terror boss Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair's closest associates was among the group arrested as they came off a Scottish ferry in Belfast last night.
It is understood the men fled to Britain after Gregg, the Ulster Defence Association's feared commander, was shot dead close to the city's docks area during a vicious feud earlier this year. Up to nine loyalists were in the group who returned last night. It is believed some of them had been living in Manchester, Liverpool and Bolton.
It was reported that a gang of over 200 people were waiting for them when they arrived. "But hordes of police were there and stopped a bloodbath," a loyalist source said.
Well-placed UDA figures insisted no amnesty had been granted to those who escaped in the days after Gregg was murdered. Even though Adair himself was thrown back in jail at the height of the latest loyalist shooting war which claimed four lives, his wife Gina and mentor John White were among the group expelled from the Lower Shankill powerbase.