Police say operatives acting under name Action Against Drugs killed Kevin McGuigan, who had been accused of killing former Belfast IRA commander

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Police suspect that members of the Provisional IRA killed its former key assassin Kevin McGuigan – an admission that could threaten to undermine the power sharing government in Northern Ireland.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said on Thursday afternoon that operatives from PIRA, under the cover name of Action Against Drugs, were behind last week’s murder of the 53-year-old former republican prisoner.

But the PSNI attempted to qualify the link between PIRA activists responsible for the fatal shooting and the mainstream republican leadership in Belfast.

Man charged in connection with murder of former IRA member Kevin McGuigan Read more

In a statement, PSNI Det Supt Kevin Geddes said: “It is my assessment that Action Against Drugs are a group of individuals who are criminals, violent dissident republicans and former members of the Provisional IRA.



“They are dangerous, they are involved in violence and extortion of the nationalist and republican communities.

“My assessment is that this is a separate group from the Provisional IRA. I have no information at this stage to say whether [the killing] was sanctioned at a command level or not.”

The Provisional IRA was meant to have disbanded as a military force in 2005 and to have decommissioned its entire arsenal as part of moves to build a power sharing coalition with their former unionist enemies.

Unionists including the first minister, Peter Robinson, have warned that any established link between the PIRA and the McGuigan murder would lead to a fresh crisis in the Irish peace process and the political settlement at Stormont.



Robinson said on Thursday night that he is to hold talks about the potential exclusion of Sinn Féin from the Northern Ireland Assembly.



He said his Democratic Unionists entered government with republicans on a commitment to exclusively peaceful and democratic means through support for the police, the courts and the rule of law as well as the dismantling of the structures of their terrorist organisation. A DUP walkout would cause the collapse of the power-sharing administration at Stormont.



Robinson said: “To ensure that dealing with this issue is pursued in a manner which attracts the widest possible consensus, we will have discussions with other parties about tabling the necessary exclusion motion in the assembly and ask the secretary of state [Theresa Villiers] to intervene in circumstances where the evidence points to the IRA being involved.”

Irish republican dissident sources told the Guardian last week that that they had no involvement in the killing of McGuigan, who was gunned down in front of his wife outside their home in the Catholic Short Strand district.



His family have alleged that PIRA members, sanctioned by the organisation’s leadership, killed the father of nine, who was buried on Wednesday amid tight security in Belfast.

McGuigan had been accused by ex-comrades of killing a former Belfast IRA commander, Gerard “Jock” Davison, in central Belfast in May.

The pair, who were once part of an IRA killing unit that targeted alleged drug dealers in the 1990s, fell out in bitter circumstances. Davison had ordered that McGuigan receive a so-called punishment shooting over his role in a violent dispute with a long-standing republican family. Through his solicitor, however, McGuigan had strongly denied involvement in the Davison murder.

On the McGuigan killing, Geddes added that the PSNI was following a main line of inquiry that McGuigan was killed by members of Action Against Drugs, in what the force believes to have been revenge for Davison’s murder.

Republican and security sources in Northern Ireland believe Action Against Drugs is a flag of convenience used by PIRA members to target those who have crossed them, including McGuigan.



The same sources said the use of weapons to kill someone with such a high profile within Belfast republicanism like McGuigan would have to have been sanctioned at the highest levels of the organisation.

On Thursday evening, a 53-year-old man appeared in court charged with possessing a Glock automatic pistol with intent to endanger life. Pat Fitzpatrick, from the Lagmore area of west Belfast, was arrested on Wednesday during house raids connected to the McGuigan murder investigation. Fitzpatrick was refused bail and remanded in custody by a judge at Lisburn magistrates court.

Sinn Féin continue to insist that the IRA played no part in the McGuigan murder, and appealed for anyone with information about the killing to contact the PSNI.



After the PSNI announcement, the Sinn Féin deputy first minister Martin McGuinness tweeted: “The people who murdered Jock Davison are criminals. Those who murdered Kevin McGuigan are also criminals. They must be brought to justice.”

Dr Alasdair McDonnell, the Social Democratic and Labour MP for Belfast South, said: “I welcome this assessment by the police, which is compatible with what people on the street already know.

“The Provisional IRA in whatever form it exists, despite whatever contortions it may have gone through, still appears to claim the right to exercise life and death decisions over anyone in the community that they develop a grudge against.

“Kevin McGuigan’s murder was barbaric – it was totally unacceptable and unjustified by any civilised standards. We will now be seeking a meeting with the chief constable as a matter of urgency.”

• The headline on this article was amended on Friday 21 August 2015 to better reflect the content.