‘Harmless stooge’ facing jail over UDA drugs haul
SHANKILL ROAD MAN STORED COCAINE FOR GANG TO PAY OFF DEBTS
A VULNERABLE male was forced to handle cocaine for UDA terror bosses to pay off spiralling drug debts.
Loyalist sources say James Mercer is the latest victim of the crime gang despite pleading guilty in court last week to being concerned in the supply of cocaine.
Far from being a major dealer the popular 46-year-old, who was freed on bail, has been described as a harmless stooge forced to store drugs packages to clear UDA loans.
He now faces the prospect of prison, with a judge set to decide the Shankill Road man’s fate in September.
According to loyalists Mercer was set up by a leading figure in the West Belfast UDA who is ‘2IC’ (second-in-command) of the gang’s notorious C Company unit.
“This guy is a well-known police informant and drugs boss who touts on other dealers so he is left alone,” a UDA insider told Sunday Life.
Information he provided is understood to have led to the November 2021 arrest of Jackie ‘Paintbrush’ Kirkwood who was caught in east Belfast on a moped with £200,000 of cocaine hidden under the seat.
The Paramilitary Crime Task Force said the operation targeted West Belfast UDA criminality.
Kirkwood (46), who has 214 convictions on his criminal record, was later jailed for 18 months for possessing the drugs with intent to supply.
Loyalist sources explained how forensic tests on Kirkwood’s cocaine packages discovered fingerprints belonging to James Mercer.
He was charged with conspiracy to supply, despite being on the bottom rung of the drugs ladder and only having the consignment for a short time.
Mercer’s prosecution has angered people on the Shankill, with one leading loyalist describing him as a “harmless critter”.
“He’s well thought of and everyone knows he was used by the UDA,” said our source. “The only reason James got involved with these drug dealers is because he was in debt to the UDA and he had to somehow pay it off. He’s as much a victim as the poor people who are addicted to these drugs.”
The West Belfast UDA remains a key target for the Paramilitary Crime Task Force due to its involvement in drug dealing.
Loyalists say convicted UDA killer and C Company boss Mo Courtney oversees its vast network which includes dozens of street dealers.
The 60-year-old, who was arrested last month in connection with a PSNI investigation into organised crime, denies any link to the drugs trade.
His C Company second-in-command, who loyalists believe is a police informant, is the link between Courtney and the street dealers.
Since he took over the 2IC role four years ago, several prominent UDA-linked dealers have been jailed, having been arrested in taskforce operations, fuelling speculation that he has provided information on them to his handlers.
These include drug barons Dee Coleman and Dee Jenkins — two major Shankill Road dealers. Also convicted were Graham Darragh, his nephew Jordan Darragh, and ‘Silly’ Willie McLaughlin.
Our UDA source added: “It’s no coincidence that since this guy was appointed Mo’s 2IC, all these rival drug dealers have been convicted and sent to jail.
“He has taken them out one by one and it’s now got to the stage that it’s just him and Mo running all the drugs in the lower Shankill, which they are making a fortune from.”