THE RUC says the IRA "at its highest level" sanctioned the seven killings of alleged drug dealers carried out since April last year - eight months after the IRA declared its ceasefire.
Three people who were being questioned in Castlereagh holding centre in Belfast last night in connection with the suspected IRA murders, were released without charge. Four of the killings were admitted by Direct Action Against Drugs, said to be an IRA front.
The RUC Chief Constable, Sir Hugh Annesley, said "there is no doubt whatsoever" that the IRA was responsible for the murders. His assistant chief constable, Mr Raymond White, said the IRA's "top men" sanctioned the murders and this was confirmed by, other senior officers.
These statements endorse claims made by politicians, such as Mr Ken Maginnis of the Ulster Unionist Party, that the IRA army council is behind the recent murders.
RUC sources also say they- have forensic evidence to link, some of the weapons used in the seven killings. It is understood, however, that there is no forensic evidence to indicate that the weapons used in these murders were used in previous IRA murders before the ceasefire.
This further supports the belief that the alleged IRA unit or units involved in the killings since April were careful to use hand-guns and shotguns which could not be forensically traced back to IRA-admitted killings before the ceasefire.
The fact that no forensic link has been established between weapons used in recent killings to those used pre-ceasefire by the IRA has allowed Sinn Fein representatives to say that, whatever about RUC and political claims, there is no evidence to connect the IRA to the murders.
The three arrests - understood to be of two men and a woman - were made by a special RUC unit recently established to trace those responsible for recent killings. They were detained on Thursday, and held overnight.
The RUC believes a small, tightly organised IRA squad has been detailed by senior commanders to carry out the murders over the past nine months. The killings have created fears loyalists may engage in copy-cat murders. The Protestant Action Force, a UVF cover name, has compiled a list of 10 people in the Ballymena and Antrim areas whom they are threatening to kill for alleged drugs dealing.
