21.2.05
Sunday Life
Bust fails to net LVF coke king
By Ciaran McGuigan
20 February 2005
THE crime boss running the LVF's multi-million pound drugs empire was last night still a free man - despite one of his minions being banged up for four years.
The 'Mr Big' - who divides his time between Spain, Holland and fishing trips to the Republic - was yesterday believed to be holed up in his mid-Ulster stronghold.
Sunday Life is unable to name the man for legal reasons. For - amazingly - he has never been convicted of any crime in Northern Ireland, although some of his associates have served lengthy sentences for terror offences.
But senior security sources are in no doubt he was the organiser behind what was the largest seizure of cocaine in the province.
Meanwhile, his associate - cocaine-mixer Conrad Litter (34) - last week started a four-year jail term for being caught with the terror boss's coke haul.
Litter, who was not in the LVF, but was working alongside it, was caught red-handed when cops raided premises in mid-Ulster in October 2003.
He was in the process of mixing eight kilos of cocaine with other bulking agents, which would have left his LVF paymasters with 16 kilos of the drug.
The stash was to be distributed to LVF units throughout Ulster, to be sold on at up to £60 per ounce.
Litter - originally from the nationalist Garvaghy Road area of Portadown, but living in Hilden, near Lisburn - will have to serve two years' probation at the end of his sentence.
At the time of the seizure, the then-head of the Drugs Squad, Detective Superintendent George McCauley, said the LVF gang behind the drugs was intent on flooding Northern Ireland with cocaine.
One senior security source said last night: "There's no doubt this gear was the LVF's, and no doubt who the main organiser was.
"Litter was on top of the stuff when he was caught - he was literally covered in it. But the other guy would never have got too close to the gear."
It's understood the drugs arrived in Ulster from Colombia via Europe's sex-and-drugs capital, Amsterdam.
The leader of the LVF's drugs operation is known to have strong contacts in the Dutch city.
And it is believed he may have had a stake in a huge ecstasy 'factory' that was raided in Amsterdam just weeks after Litter was arrested.
On that occasion, Dutch authorities recovered more than £8m-worth of drugs and drug-making equipment.
In spite of the major financial hits, he is still believed to be heavily involved in importing drugs to Ulster.
Bust fails to net LVF coke king
By Ciaran McGuigan
20 February 2005
THE crime boss running the LVF's multi-million pound drugs empire was last night still a free man - despite one of his minions being banged up for four years.
The 'Mr Big' - who divides his time between Spain, Holland and fishing trips to the Republic - was yesterday believed to be holed up in his mid-Ulster stronghold.
Sunday Life is unable to name the man for legal reasons. For - amazingly - he has never been convicted of any crime in Northern Ireland, although some of his associates have served lengthy sentences for terror offences.
But senior security sources are in no doubt he was the organiser behind what was the largest seizure of cocaine in the province.
Meanwhile, his associate - cocaine-mixer Conrad Litter (34) - last week started a four-year jail term for being caught with the terror boss's coke haul.
Litter, who was not in the LVF, but was working alongside it, was caught red-handed when cops raided premises in mid-Ulster in October 2003.
He was in the process of mixing eight kilos of cocaine with other bulking agents, which would have left his LVF paymasters with 16 kilos of the drug.
The stash was to be distributed to LVF units throughout Ulster, to be sold on at up to £60 per ounce.
Litter - originally from the nationalist Garvaghy Road area of Portadown, but living in Hilden, near Lisburn - will have to serve two years' probation at the end of his sentence.
At the time of the seizure, the then-head of the Drugs Squad, Detective Superintendent George McCauley, said the LVF gang behind the drugs was intent on flooding Northern Ireland with cocaine.
One senior security source said last night: "There's no doubt this gear was the LVF's, and no doubt who the main organiser was.
"Litter was on top of the stuff when he was caught - he was literally covered in it. But the other guy would never have got too close to the gear."
It's understood the drugs arrived in Ulster from Colombia via Europe's sex-and-drugs capital, Amsterdam.
The leader of the LVF's drugs operation is known to have strong contacts in the Dutch city.
And it is believed he may have had a stake in a huge ecstasy 'factory' that was raided in Amsterdam just weeks after Litter was arrested.
On that occasion, Dutch authorities recovered more than £8m-worth of drugs and drug-making equipment.
In spite of the major financial hits, he is still believed to be heavily involved in importing drugs to Ulster.
