A senior loyalist paramilitary has been arrested during a major police operation in Belfast.
Andre Shoukri, leader of the Ulster Defence Association in the north of the city, was held when officers raided a number of houses.
Three other men - at least one of them another senior UDA man - and a woman were also detained.
The arrests were made as part of a investigation into organised crime. Houses in the Westlands estate, north Belfast, as well as the Castlereagh area of east Belfast were searched.
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It is understood a decision to hold another person under the police's witness-protection scheme was linked to today's arrests, which involved officers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland's organised crime branch.