THREE men were convicted yesterday of a gun plot to murder former UDA boss Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair and one of his former associates in Scotland.
Anton Duffy (39), Martin Hughes (36) and Paul Sands (32) were found guilty of planning to kill Adair and Sam 'Skelly' McCrory in 2013.
All three men had denied the charges, but were convicted yesterday following a nine-week trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
Duffy and his cousin Hughes were also convicted of terrorism charges while two other men, Craig Convery and Gordon Brown, were found guilty of organised crime charges.
The trio convicted of the murder plot were arrested in 2013 following two major Police Scotland investigations into terrorism and organised crime.
Operation Hairsplitter was set up in September 2012 to investigate an attempt to procure firearms, including an AK47, by the gang led by Duffy.
Police said Duffy, from Donegal, was the ringleader of an unaffiliated active service unit inspired by dissident republicanism and planned to carry out the double murder with Sands and Hughes while on home leave from prison.
Adair and McCrory, former leading figures in loyalism, have been living in Scotland for more than a decade after they were exiled from Northern Ireland by their former UDA comrades.
It was feared that if the murders had been carried out it would have had huge ramifications on both sides of the Irish Sea.
Duffy was described as passionate about a united Ireland and believed the peace agreement had sold out the Republican movement.
He initially planned operations from his cell in Castle Huntly open prison having been jailed in 2010 for brandishing a loaded handgun in a Glasgow nightclub during a dispute with a bouncer.
Every four weeks, when he received home leave back to his flat in Old Castle Road, Glasgow, Duffy talked to criminal associates in a bid to obtain weapons.
He also enlisted Hughes and recruited fellow prisoner Paul Sands - a Facebook friend of Mr McCrory - who knew about McCrory's daily routine.
But the men did not know was that MI5 had learned of their plans and had authorised the bugging of Duffy's flat and Hughes' car.
The court heard that Duffy believed Adair and McCrory were responsible for ordering the murders of dozens of innocent Catholics during the Troubles.
Evidence was presented that he wanted to shoot Mr McCrory using a pistol or revolver and then quickly target Mr Adair using an AK 47, which he dubbed "the big fella".
A cellmate of Duffy revealed that he hated Adair and talked of shooting him as he walked his dog or trained at the gym.
The trial also heard that Duffy even approached Celtic player Anthony Stokes in the Brazen Head pub in Glasgow, asking him to get his father to pass a message on to someone in Ireland to obtain weapons.
Regulars reacted furiously to this and Duffy was thrown out of the pub.
In evidence, McCrory admitted the killing of him and Mr Adair would be "huge scalps for dissident republican groups."
The High Court in Glasgow heard that Duffy and Hughes drove from Glasgow on October 1 2013 in a silver Mercedes 4x4 and met up with Sands in Ayrshire, who knew where McCory lived and his movements,
The court was told the plan was to make the murder look like a random shooting.
Duffy, Sands and Hughes were arrested in October 2013 and charged under the Terrorism Act and also with conspiracy to murder.
In January 2014, Convery and Brown were arrested and charged with directing serious organised crime.
Judge Lady Scott deferred sentence on all five men until next month and ordered background reports on all of them and a psychiatric report on Duffy.
Police Scotland said all five convictions were the result of two major investigations into "a murder gang" and "the activities of a major organised crime group".
Detective Superintendent Andy Gunn, who led Operation Hairsplitter, said: "Anton Duffy was the main instigator of the plot to kill two men, due to his twisted ideology to further the aims of dissident republican terrorism.
"This was not sanctioned by anyone of a higher authority within those circles, but was driven by Duffy's own sympathies.
"He is a dangerous man who was determined to see this conspiracy through to its conclusion.
"I have no doubt that were it not for the intervention of the authorities in an operation led by Police Scotland, we would have been left investigating a double murder in an act of terrorism carried out in our communities.
"Duffy had significant influence to persuade his associates to join the conspiracy, prepare for the act of murder and acquire the weapons to carry it out.
"The streets of Scotland are safer now that he, Sands, Hughes, Brown and Convery have been convicted today.
"It brings two complex and challenging Police Scotland investigations to a successful conclusion."
