The Ulster Freedom Fighters has claimed responsibility for murdering the missing loyalist, Mr Alan McCullough.
In a call to a Belfast newsroom this evening the terror group linked the 21-year-old to the murder of UDA leader John Gregg and the killing of Protestant man Jonathan Stewart on the Shankhill just before Christmas.
The UFF is regarded as a cover name used by the UDA to carry out acts of violence.
There have been calls on the Northern Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, to clarify the status of the Ulster Defence Association ceasefire following Mr McCullough's disappearance.
Meanwhile, police forensic teams are continuing their search of an isolated spot on the outskirts of north Belfast after a body believed to be that of missing loyalist Alan McCullough was discovered.
The grim find was made in fields off the Aughnabrack Road in the Mallusk areaof Co Antrim as a result of a tip-off to police.
Senior detectives have not yet identified the body as McCullough, a closeassociate of jailed terror chief Johnny Adair - but his family have been told toexpect the worst.
Detective Inspector Keith McCoubrey, deputy chief investigating officer, saidit could be some time before the forensic examination was completed and the bodypositively identified.
"The family liaison officers have been in contact with the family thismorning to inform them we have found a body but we also have to point out thatas yet we cannot confirm that it is Alan," he said.
Police have been searching for the 21-year-old loyalist since he was drivenaway from his home in the Shankill area of west Belfast by two senior members ofthe Ulster Defence Association last week.
He had been among those from Adair's notorious C Company forced to fleeNorthern Ireland in February by the mainstream UDA leadership after a brutalfeud which claimed four lives.
Along with Adair's wife Gina, political frontman John White and others,McCullough fled to Scotland on an overnight ferry after the murder of Adair'sbitter rival, John "Grug" Gregg, who commanded the UDA's South East AntrimBrigade.
The UDA's Inner Council had warned that any of the renegades that returned toNorthern Ireland would be shot, but McCullough believed that he had negotiated alifting of the death sentence and returned.
Loyalist sources said that after Adair's arrest in January, McCullough hadtaken over as military commander of C Company.
One source said that it was inevitable he would be singled out after hereturned to the lower Shankill area.
"He was shrewd enough and streetwise but when it comes down to the nittygritty, it seems he bit off more than he could chew."
Chief Constable Hugh Orde said the location of the body, a few miles outsideBelfast, "makes it entirely possible that it is Mr McCullough but we can'tconfirm it until we are sure.
"What is very important is that we have been treating this as a murderinvestigation from very early on even though no body was found.
"That's how seriously we have been taking this."
Ulster Unionist councillor Chris McGimpsey, who represents the Shankill Roadarea, visited the McCullough family home today.
He said: "The view seems to be that this is probably Alan's body. If that'sthe case then clearly he hasn't been taken too far from home.
Mr McGimpsey said it would appear that if it was McCullough, the murder hadbeen carried out by the UDA.
"It would seem quite clear that it was the UDA that murdered Alan. He leftwith two members of that organisation and there is no evidence as to him leavingthem and going off where he might have been abducted by someone else."