ON the face of it the conviction of David 'Dee' Coleman is a huge success for the Paramilitary Crime Task Force.
Widely consider the second in command of `C Company', the infamous UDA unit once headed up by Johnny Adair, now a crime gang with an extensive drugs network, it is just the kind of organisation the task force were set up to target.
Disrupting the loyalist organisation and jailing the leadership is of course the best way to stop the flow of drugs into the greater Shankill area.
However, the arrest of Dee Coleman, a man who regularly featured in the pages of the Sunday tabloids, has done little to curb the drug epidemic that has caused devastation to so many families in the area and made many of the senior UDA crime bosses into very wealthy men who live lavish lifestyles well above their legal means.
Coleman is the first big 'scalp' taken by the crime force who were set up as part of the Fresh Start agreement.
Despite extensive resources they have to date had limited success in conviction terms.
Coleman is not a master criminal, the court was told he signed off a text message to a group of associates with '2nd batt c coy'. an act that walked him into prison
The unit of the UDA he belongs to is full of much more high profile and influential characters, some of who have appeared untouchable for many years, who were listed by their code names in the De Silva report into the murder of solicitor Pat Finucane as informers.
Head of the PSNI's Criminal Investigation Branch, Bobby Singleton yesterday strongly denied any suggestion that there are untouchable figures in`C Company'.
Adding that this is only the beginning of the police dismantling of the loyalist paramilitary network.
Mr Singleton will be judged on his actions not his words, and it is not the media but the community who have suffered for years under the jackboot of the paramilitary godfathers who will be watching the task force carefully over the coming months to see if they follow through on their ambitious promises.
