Adair ‘Pup; Son Arrested.

By Brendan Anderson

THE son of convicted Loyalist paramilitary leader Johnny “Mad Dog” Adair was among six people arrested during a series of police house raids in England on Tuesday.

Jonathan Adair, 19, nicknamed “Mad Pup” by his father, was arrested on suspicion of drugs offences along with a 22-year-old man at a hotel in the Lancashire town of Anderton.

British police searched five houses in the greater Manchester area in the early hours following a three-month investigation by Manchester drug squad detectives.

An imitation M16 machinegun and four fake handguns were recovered by police search parties. Officers also arrested a 32-year-old woman and a 13-year-old boy in Bolton, and an 18-year-old woman and a 40-year-old man in Horwich. 

Johnny Adair, released early from a 16-year sentence under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement was returned to prison in January this year for, among other things, his involvement in a deadly internal Loyalist feud. His family and several of his C Company UFF associates were forced to leave the North earlier this year because of the same feud.

Jonathan Adair was the victim of a Loyalist paramilitary punishment attack earlier this year when he was “kneecapped” - shot in the leg allegedly for anti-social behavior. There was intense speculation a the time that the order to punish the teenager came from Adair senior.