Security chiefs were prepared to pay up to £30,000 (€42,000) to persuade loyalist Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair to become a Special Branch agent, it has been reported.
Even though Adair was heavily involved in paramilitarism, drug dealing, extortion and racketeering, police in Belfast considered using him to inform on his associates in the Ulster Defence Association, security sources said.
Adair (40) had just been released from prison in September 1999 under the terms of the Belfast Agreement when plans to recruit him were discussed.
The proposal was turned down at chief superintendent level because of fears the Shankill Road loyalist could not be controlled, it was claimed.
SDLP north Belfast councillor MR Alban Maginness, whose offices were bombed by Adair's former UDA colleagues in 2001, said: "It's outrageous that they would even consider a man who is driven by such intense anti-Catholic sentiment.
"Who knows what latitude would have been given to him."
Reports of the attempt to hire Adair emerged as the IRA leadership faced growing pressure to explain its position over Mr Freddie Scappaticci, the man accused of being "Stakeknife", a British army spy inside the IRA.
PA