Seventy guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition have been found by police in a loyalist area of north Belfast.
The huge arms cache, reportedly linked to the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), was uncovered as officers searched the house of a former loyalist paramilitary who died suddenly last weekend.
The huge stash was uncovered when police went to investigate the death of Billy “Black Neck” Bell. Other weapons were found in locked premises. It is understood the guns and thousands of bullets had been hidden all over the terraced house at Ballysillan Drive in north Belfast. Details emerged hours before Mr Bell’s funeral.
Mr Bell, aged in his 50s, was a weapons expert who could turn replica guns into firing weapons. Police are not treating his death as suspicious, but an inquest is likely to be held later. It is believed he was suffering from cancer.
A statement by police in the city today said: “A substantial amount of guns and ammunition were discovered as part of an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the sudden death of a man in the north of the city at the weekend.
“During a follow-up search of the man’s house, more than 70 suspected guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition were discovered. All have been removed for forensic examination.
“A further small number of suspected firearms were also found in lock-up premises in the greater Belfast area.” Those ballistic tests will determine whether the weapons have been used in paramilitary attacks.
In May last year, the UVF effectively declared an end to its campaign of violence by announcing the organisation was adopting a non-military and civilian role. Recruitment, military training and targeting had ceased, intelligence rendered obsolete and all guns “put beyond reach”.
A blue-and-white floral tribute saying “Dad” and “Granddad” was in the garden of the house, but reporters were threatened away from the area.
Sinn Fein Assembly member Gerry Kelly said: “These guns, which belonged to an organisation that was responsible for countless sectarian killings in north Belfast and further afield, have now been taken off the streets.
“The obvious question that nationalists across north Belfast will be asking is what the UVF were doing with 70 guns and a large amount of ammunition in the city anyway, 14 years after the UVF declared a ceasefire.
“If anything, this find reinforces the fact that continued pressure, especially from the British Government and the unionist parties, needs to be brought to bear on loyalist paramilitaries to once-and-for-all get their deadly arsenal off the streets.”
It is one of the biggest arms dumps ever found in Belfast and ballistic tests will be carried out on every weapon to determine if they have been used, and if they have, how many shootings they have been used in.
SDLP Assembly member Alban Magennis said today's find "begs a lot of questions about the truth of the UVF statement that they have put arms beyond use.
"We don't know the full facts on this yet but it represents a very serious departure from the UVF's commitment to put arms beyond reach.
"To have an arsenal of weaponry suggests to me and most ordinary people that they are there for a specific use."