Editing Ulster Volunteer Force (section)

==Aim and strategy==
[[File:UVFVolunteers.jpeg|thumb|250px|A UVF publicity photo showing masked and armed UVF members on patrol in Belfast]]
The UVF's stated goal was to combat [[Irish republicanism]] – particularly the [[Provisional Irish Republican Army]] (IRA) – and maintain Northern Ireland's status as part of the United Kingdom.<ref>''Country Reports on Terrorism: 2004''. State Department, Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism. p. 128</ref> The vast majority of its victims were [[Irish Catholic]] civilians, who were often killed at random.<ref name="random">{{cite news |title=Will loyalists seek bloody revenge? |author=David McKittrick |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/david-mckittrick-will-loyalists-seek-bloody-revenge-1643076.html |newspaper=[[The Independent]] |date=12 March 2009 |access-date=21 June 2011 |location=London |archive-date=14 March 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090314053127/http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/david-mckittrick-will-loyalists-seek-bloody-revenge-1643076.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Whenever it claimed responsibility for its attacks, the UVF usually claimed that those targeted were IRA members or were giving help to the IRA.<ref>Kentucky New Era, 14 April 1992</ref> At other times, attacks on Catholic civilians were claimed as "retaliation" for IRA actions, since the IRA drew almost all of its support from the Catholic community. Such retaliation was seen as both [[collective punishment]] and an attempt to weaken the IRA's support; it was thought that terrorising the Catholic community and inflicting such a death toll on it would force the IRA to end its campaign.<ref name="thomas mitchell">{{cite book |title=Native vs. Settler |last=Mitchell |first=Thomas G |year=2000 |publisher=Greenwood Press |pages=154–165 |chapter=Chapter 7 subsection: The Loyalist terrorists of Ulster, 1969–94}}</ref> Many retaliatory attacks on Catholics were claimed using the covername "[[Protestant Action Force]]" (PAF), which first appeared in autumn 1974.<ref name="bruce119">Steve Bruce, ''The Red Hand'', Oxford University Press, 1992, p. 119</ref> They always signed their statements with the fictitious name "Captain William Johnston".<ref>Taylor, Peter (1999). ''Loyalists: War and Peace in Northern Ireland''. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. pp. 40–41</ref>

Like the [[Ulster Defence Association]] (UDA), the UVF's ''[[modus operandi]]'' involved assassinations, mass shootings, bombings and kidnappings. It used [[submachine gun]]s, [[assault rifle]]s, [[shotgun]]s, [[pistol]]s, [[grenade]]s (including homemade grenades), [[incendiary bomb]]s, [[booby trap]] bombs and [[car bomb]]s. Referring to its activity in the early and mid-1970s, journalist [[Ed Moloney]] described no-warning [[Public house|pub]] bombings as the UVF's "forte".<ref name="moloney350">Moloney, Ed (2010). ''Voices From the Grave: Two Men's War in Ireland''. Faber & Faber. p. 350</ref> Members were trained in bomb-making, and the organisation developed home-made explosives.<ref name="cusack105">Jim Cusack & Henry McDonald, ''UVF'', Poolbeg, 1997, p. 105</ref> In the late summer and autumn of 1973, the UVF detonated more bombs than the UDA and IRA combined,<ref name="bruce115">Steve Bruce, ''The Red Hand'', Oxford University Press, 1992, p. 115</ref> and by the time of the group's temporary ceasefire in late November it had been responsible for over 200 explosions that year.<ref name="cusack129">Jim Cusack & Henry McDonald, ''UVF'', Poolbeg, 1997, p. 129</ref> However, from 1977 bombs largely disappeared from the UVF's arsenal owing to a lack of explosives and bomb-makers, plus a conscious decision to abandon their use in favour of more contained methods.<ref name="cusack194">Jim Cusack & Henry McDonald, ''UVF'', Poolbeg, 1997, p. 194</ref><ref name="bruce144-145">Steve Bruce, ''The Red Hand'', Oxford University Press, 1992, p.144–145</ref> The UVF did not return to regular bombings until the early 1990s when it obtained a quantity of the mining explosive [[Powergel]].<ref name="cusack311-312, 313, 316, 317">Jim Cusack & Henry McDonald, ''UVF'', Poolbeg, 1997, pp. 311–312, 313, 316, 317</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Bruce |first=Steve |title=Angry men at an Ulster crossroads |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/angry-men-at-an-ulster-crossroads-1308322.html |work=The Independent |location=London |date=5 August 1996 |access-date=14 December 2017 |archive-date=8 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308054332/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/angry-men-at-an-ulster-crossroads-1308322.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Strength===
The strength of the UVF is uncertain. The first [[Independent Monitoring Commission]] report in April 2004 described the UVF/RHC as "relatively small" with "a few hundred" active members "based mainly in the Belfast and immediately adjacent areas".<ref name="cain.ulst.ac.uk"/> Historically, the number of active UVF members in July 1971 was stated by one source to be no more than 20.<ref name="boulton144">Boulton, p. 144,</ref> Later, in September 1972, Gusty Spence said in an interview that the organisation had a strength of 1,500.<ref name="cusack102">Cusack & McDonald, p. 102</ref> A British Army report released in 2006 estimated a peak membership of 1,000.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.vilaweb.cat/media/attach/vwedts/docs/op_banner_analysis_released.pdf |title=AC 71842 Operation BANNER |website=Vilaweb.cat |access-date=2017-06-23 |archive-date=3 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303215447/http://www.vilaweb.cat/media/attach/vwedts/docs/op_banner_analysis_released.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Information regarding the role of women in the UVF is limited. One study focusing in part on female members of the UVF and [[Red Hand Commando]] noted that it "seem[ed] to have been reasonably unusual" for women to be officially asked to join the UVF.<ref>Alison, Miranda, ''Women and Political Violence: Female Combatants in Ethno-National Conflict'', Routledge, 2009, p. 160, {{ISBN|978-0415592420}}</ref> Another estimates that over a 30-year period women accounted for, at most, just 2% of UVF membership.<ref>McEvoy, Sandra, ''Gender and International Security: Feminist Perspectives'', Routledge, 2009, p. 134, {{ISBN|978-0415475792}},</ref>

===Finance===
{{Further information|Paramilitary finances in the Troubles}}
Prior to and after the onset of the Troubles the UVF carried out armed robberies.<ref name="bruce191">Bruce, p. 191</ref><ref name="cusack86">Cusack & McDonald, p. 86</ref> This activity has been described as its preferred source of funds in the early 1970s,<ref>Wood, Ian S., ''Crimes of Loyalty'', Edinburgh University Press, 2006, p.20 {{ISBN|978-0748624270}}</ref> and it continued into the 2000s, with the UVF in [[County Londonderry]] being active.<ref name="cain.ulst.ac.uk" /> Members were disciplined after they carried out an unsanctioned theft of £8 million of paintings from an estate in [[County Wicklow|Co Wicklow]] in April 1974.<ref name="taylor125">Taylor, p. 125</ref> Like the IRA, the UVF also operated [[black taxi service]]s,<ref name="cusack85">Cusack & McDonald, p. 85</ref><ref name="boulton174">Boulton, p. 174</ref><ref>Adams, James, ''The Financing of Terror'', New English Library, 1988, p. 167, {{ISBN|978-0450413476}}</ref> a scheme believed to have generated £100,000 annually for the organisation.<ref name="bruce191" /> The UVF has also been involved in the extortion of legitimate businesses, although to a lesser extent than the UDA,<ref name="bruce198">Bruce, p. 198</ref> and was described in the fifth IMC report as being involved in organised crime.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/politics/docs/imc/imc240505.pdf |title=FIFTH REPORT OF THE INDEPENDENT MONITORING COMMISSION |website=Cain.ulst.ac.uk |access-date=2017-06-23 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304200553/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/politics/docs/imc/imc240505.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2002 the [[Northern Ireland Affairs Committee]] estimated the UVF's annual running costs at £1–2 million per year, against an annual fundraising capability of £1.5 million.<ref name="DDBVGEW">{{cite report|url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmselect/cmniaf/978/97806.htm|title=Select Committee on Northern Ireland Affairs - Part One: The continuing threat from paramilitary organisations|date=26 June 2002|website=UK Parliament}}</ref><ref>House of Commons: Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, ''The Financing of Terrorism in Northern Ireland: Report and Proceedings of the Committee volume 1'', Stationery Office Books, 2002, {{ISBN|978-0215004000}}</ref>

A Canadian branch of the UDA also existed and sent $30,000 to the UDA's headquarters in Belfast by 1975. The Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee noted in its report that "in 1992 it was estimated that Scottish support for the UDA and UVF might amount to £100,000 a year."<ref name="DDBVGEW"/>

====Drug dealing====
The UVF have been implicated in drug dealing in areas from where they draw their support.  Recently it has emerged from the Police Ombudsman that senior North Belfast UVF member and [[Royal Ulster Constabulary]] (RUC) Special Branch informant [[Mark Haddock]] has been involved in drug dealing. According to the ''[[Belfast Telegraph]]'', "70 separate police intelligence reports implicating the north Belfast UVF man in dealing cannabis, Ecstasy, amphetamines and cocaine."<ref>''The Belfast Telegraph''</ref>

According to Alan McQuillan, the assistant director of the Assets Recovery Agency in 2005, "In the loyalist community, drug dealing is run by the paramilitaries and it is generally run for personal gain by a large number of people." When the Assets Recovery Agency won a High Court order to seize luxury homes belonging to ex-policeman Colin Robert Armstrong and his partner Geraldine Mallon in 2005, Alan McQuillan said  "We have further alleged Armstrong has had links with the UVF and then the LVF following the split between those organisations." It was alleged that Colin Armstrong had links to both drugs and loyalist terrorists.<ref>{{cite news |last=McQuillan |first=Alan |title='Drugs link' man is ex-policeman |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4379973.stm |access-date=16 June 2012 |publisher=BBC News |date=24 March 2005 |archive-date=23 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210923161227/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4379973.stm |url-status=live }}</ref>

Billy Wright, the commander of the UVF Mid-Ulster Brigade, is believed to have started dealing drugs in 1991<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11112737 |publisher=BBC News |title=Who was Billy Wright? |date=14 September 2010 |access-date=22 June 2018 |archive-date=16 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180916150127/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11112737 |url-status=live }}</ref> as a lucrative sideline to paramilitary murder. Wright is believed to have dealt mainly in Ecstasy tablets in the early 90s.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11279120 |publisher=BBC News |title=Billy Wright timeline |date=14 September 2010 |access-date=22 June 2018 |archive-date=16 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180916150147/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11279120 |url-status=live }}</ref> It was around this time that Sunday World journalists Martin O'Hagan and Jim Campbell coined the term "rat pack" for the UVF's murderous mid-Ulster unit and, unable to identify Wright by name for legal reasons, they christened him "King Rat." An article published by the newspaper fingered Wright as a drug lord and sectarian murderer. Wright was apparently enraged by the nickname and made numerous threats to O'Hagan and Campbell. The Sunday World's offices were also firebombed. Mark Davenport from the BBC has stated that he spoke to a drug dealer who told him that he paid Billy Wright protection money.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markdevenport/2010/09/remembering_billy_wright.html |title=BBC - The Devenport Diaries: Remembering Billy Wright |access-date=20 November 2014 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924161551/http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markdevenport/2010/09/remembering_billy_wright.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Loyalists in Portadown such as Bobby Jameson have stated that the LVF (the Mid-Ulster Brigade that broke away from the main UVF - and led by Billy Wright) was not a 'loyalist organisation but a drugs organisation causing misery in Portadown.'<ref>The Lost Lives, David McKittrick, Page 1475</ref>

The UVF's satellite organisation, the Red Hand Commando, was described by the IMC in 2004 as "heavily involved" in drug dealing.<ref name="cain.ulst.ac.uk">{{cite web |url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/politics/docs/imc/imc200404.pdf |title=Report_Cover |website=Cain.ulst.ac.uk |access-date=2017-06-23 |archive-date=23 April 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180423062640/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/politics/docs/imc/imc200404.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>