Loyalists gave Catholic mob boss safe house after Sean Fox murder

The M Mob boss cannot be identified for legal reasons

Sean Fox was shot dead last year

Glenn Rainey was jailed last year for drug dealing

The leader of a cocaine gang who tops a dissident republican death list was provided with a safe house by loyalists after the murder of drugs baron Sean Fox.

The notorious dealer, who was born a Catholic and leads a crime group known as the ‘M Mob’ based in the Short Strand area of east Belfast, had been living in Lisburn.

But he fled the property following the murder of Fox by republicans last October fearing the killers knew where he lived.

He was also spooked by an incident the previous year when armed Dublin drug dealers who he owed £500,000 to for 20 kilos of cocaine called to his home. The M Mob leader, who cannot be named because he is before the courts on serious charges, fled through the back door and contacted Sean Fox who gave him shelter.

Fearing he was an easy target for dissident republicans after the Fox murder, he got in touch with loyalist drug dealers who he supplied in east Belfast asking them to find him a safe house.

It was these individuals, some of whom have links to the UVF, who arranged for the cocaine boss to move into an expensive rented property close to the Stormont estate in east Belfast.

He was living there when he was jailed for nine months before Christmas for possessing £92,000 of criminal cash.

Sources say the relationship between the Catholic drugs boss and UVF drug dealers show how traditional inter-community rivalries are put to one side when money is involved.

“All these guys care about is cash, they couldn’t care less if the cocaine they are dealing is snorted by a Catholic or a Protestant,” a criminal source told Sunday Life.

“The M Mob leader was convinced dissidents were trying to kill him, and he was warned by the cops after Sean Fox was murdered that he was a target, so he reached out to UVF dealers and they sorted him out with a house near Stormont where he will be safe.”

Insiders say the Short Strand based M Mob and loyalist drug dealers from east Belfast have a long-standing arrangement.

“The Rainey brothers, Mark and Glenn Rainey, who are serving prison sentences for UVF cocaine dealing would have been supplied by the M Mob,” added our source.

“Now that the M Mob leader is in jail for money laundering his brothers and cousins are running the gang. They are making a fortune from selling cocaine, especially in the Short Strand, Market and lower Ormeau areas –where they have dealers on nearly every street.”

When the M Mob boss appeared in court before Christmas to be sentenced for money laundering a prosecution lawyer detailed his lavish lifestyle.

Despite being on benefits the criminal was able to pay £20,000 cash for a glitzy wedding at a luxury Co Down hotel and enjoy frequent trips to Las Vegas, a Portuguese villa and other five-star foreign destinations.

The court heard how “there is no plausible explanation for this” or how the cocaine baron was able to afford an expensive Rolex watch.