The Catholic cocaine barons who flooded nationalist areas with UDA-supplied drugs

https://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunday-life/news/the-catholic-cocaine-barons-who-flooded-nationalist-areas-with-uda-supplied-drugs/a1803242421.html

There’s no place for sectarian hostilities in a world where ‘money is king’

These are the Catholic drug barons who made a fortune flooding nationalist areas with what police and paramilitaries say is UDA-supplied cocaine.

James McGrogan and Jackie Farrell — both of whom are now behind bars — worked hand-in-hand with the terror gang on major distribution deals.

The pair, who swamped republican heartlands in Belfast like the Falls, Ardoyne and New Lodge with UDA drugs, were linked to the paramilitary group through the notorious Coleman brothers — Dee and Gary ‘Goof’.

The siblings were senior figures in the gang’s ‘C’ Company Lower Shankill unit once led by Johnny Adair, but were kicked out of the UDA and exiled from the area several years ago following a row over missing cash.
When the Colemans were in control of C Company drug dealing, they set up a lucrative supply route with other criminals in Belfast. Among their ‘hands across barricades’ business partners were Catholics James McGrogan (37) and Jackie Farrell (42).

McGrogan has a long history of involvement in the drugs trade and was forced to flee west Belfast a decade ago under threat from dissidents.

Last month he was jailed for two years for possessing £100,000 of East Belfast UVF cocaine with intent to supply and £28,000 in criminal cash.

This is McGrogan’s second conviction for drug dealing — in 2017 he was caged for four years for possessing cocaine with intent to supply.

Cocaine queen Jackie Farrell is also currently behind bars having pleaded guilty at the end of April to a raft of drug dealing charges.

She was first arrested last summer after £50,000 of cocaine, £10,000 cash and a debtor’s list was found by police in her north Belfast home. Loyalist sources told Sunday Life that the drugs were supplied by Gary ‘Goof’ Coleman.

The 31-year-old loyalist, who has been previously identified in court as a UDA leader, remains heavily involved in drug dealing despite parting ways with the terror gang.

He has a conviction for possessing cocaine with intent to supply and has long-standing links to self-confessed drugs boss Jackie Farrell.

Photographs of the pair freely available on Farrell’s social media show how she refers to Coleman as “the apprentice” and her “business partner”.

Farrell even bought him a prank birthday cake with a green, white and orange inside and recorded a laughing Coleman slicing it open.

Detailing Coleman’s relationship with Farrell, one source said: “Goof and Jackie are best mates going back years. They invite each other to family functions, they are very close.
“They became friends through the drug scene. Jackie sold UDA cocaine in Ardoyne, which was supplied to her by Goof and his older brother Dee Coleman. Even after Goof and Dee were kicked out of the UDA, they continued to supply her.”

​In December 2020, Farrell was forced to quit her Ardoyne home following threats from dissidents. But before leaving the Housing Executive property, which she had spent thousands of pounds on decorating, she recorded herself smashing up the living room. The video was widely shared on social media.

Farrell moved to the nearby Limestone Road area where she continued to control cocaine dealing. Although she had left Ardoyne she ensured Goof Coleman’s network thrived there by using a young male associate to deal UDA drugs in the fiercely republican district.

This individual, who drives expensive cars and wears designer clothes despite being unemployed, claims to have the protection of the INLA.

While Jackie Farrell worked almost exclusively with Goof Coleman, it was his older brother Dee Coleman who was Catholic drug baron James McGrogan’s point of contact.

Dee (38) is considered the more sinister of the Coleman brothers with a criminal record for extreme violence beginning when he was just 14 years old.

That was when he helped a UDA gang shoot up a Shankill Road bar during a feud with the UVF. In the 24 years since, he has been further convicted of extortion, UDA membership, fraud and having an imitation firearm.

Coleman is currently being held on remand in Maghaberry Prison awaiting sentencing for possessing cocaine with intent to supply, along with kidnap and torture.

Last month he pleaded guilty to being part of a gang that held a drug addict captive, repeatedly stabbed him with a hot knife, hacked him with a hatchet and then dumped his semi-naked body in a field in sub-zero conditions.

It was during his stint in Maghaberry Prison for UDA membership that Coleman first met James McGrogan, who was serving a four-year sentence at the time for cocaine dealing.

The pair agreed to work together to use their contacts to supply UDA drugs throughout nationalist west Belfast. Sources who know McGrogan say working with loyalist paramilitaries did not bother him.

“When James was in jail he was close to Jay Smith — the convicted hitman and heroin dealer who was on the loyalist wing,” said an insider.