Jimmy Birch
UDA boss Jimmy “Dazzler” Birch is facing a coup in east Belfast.
The perma-tanned 43-year-old terror boss is under pressure from his own men and is expected to face the dreaded vote of confidence in the coming weeks.
The crisis in the east of the city is the latest set back for the UDA leadership. North Belfast Brigadier John Bunting is also facing demands to stand down and in the south of the city Jackie McDonald is desperately clinging to power.
North Antrim chief Billy ‘The Mexican' McFarland, a close McDonald ally, has already been forced out as the organisation becomes increasingly riven with internal splits and rows.
Birch was seen as a safe pair of hands when he took over in east Belfast. The organisation made public its commitment not to become involved in the drugs trade, and crucially the ruling Inner Council pledged it would not allow the organisation to become a dumping ground for disaffected members of rival groups.
In a statement issued through the Combined Loyalist Military Command – an umbrella group representing loyalist organisations – the UDA said it would no longer be actively recruiting new members.
Now Birch has been accused of going back on his word.
The Sunday World can reveal that the UDA in Holywood has been actively recruiting former members of the LVF with the sole aim of cashing in on their lucrative drug running operation.
We are aware of the identities of up to four notorious drug runners who have been sworn into the ranks of the UDA. It is also understood that a number of other drug dealers with no historical allegiance to a terror group have also been brought in.
At least three of them are Catholics and one has been spotted in Holywood wearing a green jacket bearing the logo of the UDA’s political wing the Ulster Political Research Group.
Well-placed UDA sources in the east of the city, have told us that at least one of the new recruits approached Birch because he was under death threat from a rival criminal.
In return for a slice of his drugs profits, Birch has promised him protection.
Veteran members of the organisation are disgusted. We understand Birch is now facing
calls for him to stand down, and we have been reliably informed that the organisation is split down the middle.
“At the moment it is 50/50,” said our source, “but it is only a matter of time, Birchie will be stood down, he is dragging the UDA through the mud. He promised us that he would never allow LVF men to join and he publicly announced the UDA would not be involved in drugs. He has lied on both counts.”
Birch was seen as a calming influence on the UDA in the wake of the turbulent years under former Brigadier Jim ‘Doris Day’ Gray.
Gray was murdered by his own men in 2005. At the height of his reign the flamboyant terror boss was making a personal fortune from racketeering and drugs rackets from his HQ in the Avenue One bar on the Newtownards Road.
“Birchie just took up where he (Gray) left off, every Monday morning Birchie collected £10,000 in cash, protection money. That didn’t even include money from Gray’s old drug rackets.”
We have spoken to UDA men who claim the UDA in east Belfast was making upwards of £30,000 a week from drugs with Jimmy Birch at the helm.
Teams of dealers were ‘ordered’ to buy up to 1500 Ecstasy tablets each week and whether they were able to sell them or not, they were expected to return the following week with the ‘profits’.
“That’s almost 20 years ago,” said our source, “you can only imagine how much money the drugs is bringing in now.”
The UDA’s grip on east Belfast has diminished in recent years with rival terror boss Stephen Matthews of the UVF taking a stranglehold.
Nothing moves in the east of the city without
Matthews’ knowing about it. The Sunday World understands Birch has agreed to play second fiddle to his UVF adversary.
Matthews ‘allows’ him to control drugs and protection rackets in the Tullycarnet housing estate on the outskirts of Belfast, where Birch lives with wife Anne. In return Birch stays out of his way.
“Matthews says jump and Birchie says “how high” he’s terrified of Matthews.”
Tullycarnet is the hub of the UDA’s money making machine in east Belfast, it is home to a shebeen and is where they control a lucrative drugs racket.
Even here, in his own backyard Birch is regarded with disdain. Known for his love of sunbed sessions which he uses to top up the regular tanning injections he takes, and for getting his teeth whitened, he has indulged in a string of extra-marital affairs.
Last year we revealed how his home and car was daubed with paint because of his philandering ways.
And just before Christmas UDA members were warned they faced disciplinary action should anyone be found talking about their chief's cheating.
“Birchie thinks he’s a man about town, he gets his teeth down and is always on the sunbeds, the boys know him as The Dazzler.”
Last winter Birch openly condemned the street violence surrounding the flag protests and said members of his organisation had been banned from becoming involved in street disturbances.
Along with South Belfast brigadier McDonald he was at Stormont to take part in the first meeting of the Ulster Forum set up to address protesters concerns.
He was pictured at Parliament Buildings dressed in a sharp suit. His outwardly respectable appearance covered up his organisation’s involvement in crime.
Last week we revealed how Birch ordered his members to vote DUP in forthcoming council elections, a call which was bitterly rejected by many members.