Strolling around the Shankill in the sun yesterday afternoon sporting shades and a bullet-proof vest, Johnny Adair looked as if he hadn't a care in the world. "But he knew there was a very good chance he could be arrested and sent back to jail," explained his colleague, John White.
Although he won't enjoy returning to prison, Adair's vast ego will have been flattered by the drama of his arrest. He was ordered out of a car, spread-eagled on the ground, driven to Girdwood Barracks, and then flown by helicopter to Maghaberry jail.
"A helicopter just for Johnny and him leading every news bulletin, he will have enjoyed that," said an associate.
Adair (36) is the only paramilitary figure around which anti-Agreement loyalists can unite.
He is regularly compared to his hero, Billy Wright, and although he lacks Wright's charm and intellect, he is popular among grassroots. His power base is the Shankill area. He has publicly supported the Belfast Agreement but privately opposes it.
He has increasingly aligned the UDA with the hardline Loyalist Volunteer Force. He is a law unto himself. He has no respect for less militant UDA leaders and takes decisions unilaterally. He is known to have had blazing rows with Gary McMichael - the moderate leader of Ulster Democratic Party, the UDA's political wing - whom he regards with contempt.
Adair is linked to the deaths of at least a dozen Catholics in the early 1990s. He is understood to be proud of his actions which he believes encouraged the Provisional IRA's ceasefire.
Ego and carelessness landed him in prison. His boasts to RUC officers on street corners about his involvement in paramilitary activity were tape-recorded and he was the first person in the North to be charged with directing terrorism.
He was released from the Maze prison last year after having served five years of a 16-year sentence.
He is hated and feared in equal measure by nationalists. He is believed to have orchestrated recent sectarian attacks against Catholics. Even Sinn Fein members in Belfast - who would have no qualms about publicly condemning other loyalists - declined to go on the record in linking Adair with the incidents.
"They're frightened. They know Johnny takes it personally and they don't want to attract his attention," said an observer. Adair lives in the lower Shankill area with his wife Gina and three children. He has pierced nipples. He denies his muscular physique is due to steroids and that he is involved in large-scale drug-dealing.
He enjoys a comfortable lifestyle and recently holidayed in Jamaica. As the UDA's Shankill area commander, he has built a raunchy image for his men. They have staged shows of strength to their theme song, Tina Turner's Simply the Best. He relishes his own nick-name, "Mad Dog". His black sense of humour was evident when he asked journalists if they would like to meet "Mad Pup". He duly presented his two-year-old son.