Two men have died in separate violent incidents in Belfast.
The first to die was Mr George Legge, a loyalist paramilitary whose decapitated body was discovered in a field on the eastern outskirts of the city at midday on Saturday. He was last seen at 9.45 p.m. on Friday and detectives were yesterday attempting to establish his movements after that.
Mr Legge (37) had been a member of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) in east Belfast since his teens. RUC detectives described him as a former assassin who had become heavily involved in the drug trade.
In 1992 he was questioned about the murder of a former east Belfast UDA leader, Mr Edward McCreery. McCreery was involved in organised crime.
According to local sources yesterday, Mr Legge is thought to have recently had a dispute with other UDA figures in east Belfast. It is said that he might have been attempting to set up a drug organisation in competition with other east Belfast dealers.
Police sources said an exceptional degree of violence was used in his murder. He suffered repeated stab wounds to the head and body before his killers severed his head with a knife. It was not clear if he was shot.
He is the second member of the UDA to be killed in a drug-related murder in the past three weeks. On December 18th, Mr James Rockett from north Belfast was beaten and shot to death, again by rival drug dealers in the same organisation.
In a separate incident, a young man was found stabbed to death in west Belfast's Lenadoon area just after 3 a.m. yesterday.
Mr Martin Crozier (20), from the nearby Poleglass estate, is thought to have been walking through the area to stay with his brother when he was set upon by a gang of youths.
It is believed locally that he was getting the better of his attackers when a knife was produced and he was stabbed. As he slumped to the ground, his assailants ran off.
An RUC spokesman said detectives were keen to discover Mr Crozier's movements in the Lenadoon area after he was dropped off by a taxi, and said it was possible that the perpetrators left the area with bloodstained clothing.
Mr Crozier's death brings to seven the number of people stabbed to death in the North in unplanned attacks since Christmas Eve. In each of the previous six cases, at least one person has appeared in court charged with murder.
As well as the deaths of six men and one woman, a number of other people have been seriously injured in stabbing incidents.
The latest was a 42-year-old man who was found lying at a road junction in north Belfast at 12.30 a.m. yesterday. Two men were arrested in connection with the incident and a knife was recovered at the scene.
A 23-year-old man was later charged with attempted murder. He will appear at Belfast Magistrate's Court today. A second man was released on police bail pending further inquiries.