A STATEMENT issued to the media last weekend using a recognised UVF codeword, and the murder of Catholic taxi driver Michael McGoldrick, precipitated yesterday's expulsion of the organisation's most notorious unit.
The unit, based in a Portadown housing estate, has shown little allegiance to the UVF leadership since the beginning of the loyalist ceasefire.
Its leader, the man known as "King Rat", has been openly critical of the UVF's political wing, the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP).
Sources close to the UVF leadership say the man overstepped the mark last weekend when he issued a statement, using a recognised UVF codeword, to a television station and newspaper in Belfast.
The statement used one of the most defamatory terms in the loyalist lexicon when it described the PUP leadership, which includes men who have served lengthy prison terms for terrorist offences, as "Lundies".
The "Lundy" referred to is the historical hate figure who wanted to open the gates of Derry to the Jacobite besiegers in 1689. The "Apprentice Boys of Derry" closed the gates and the annual celebration of their action takes place in Derry next week.
With the approach of next Saturday's Apprentice Boys' march it was suspected the Portadown UVF man may have been seeking to destabilise figures close to the UVF leadership.
The Portadown unit was already under internal investigation over the murder of the Catholic taxi driver, Michael McGoldrick, during the period of the Orange "siege" of Drumcree, the UVF insists.
The murder would have threatened the Progressive Unionist Party's position at the Stormont talks if it was shown that the murder was a deliberate act by the paramilitary group associated with the party.
An internal disciplinary process related to the McGoldrick murder was under way before the Portadown unit leader issued last weekend's statement, the UVF has pointed out.
"King Rat" was not directly involved in the murder but is believed to have ordered it. He has a good alibi because, at the time of the murder, he was present in the fields beside Drumcree church and visible to thousands of Orangemen and RUC.
He was arrested the week after the siege along with three other men but no charges were brought.
Senior RUC sources said this week they had no doubt that this man ordered the murder and kept himself deliberately visible at Drumcree.
The expelled Portadown unit has carried out a number of murders, mainly of Catholics not associated with the IRA, since the late 1980s. However, the UVF has allowed the unit to admit responsibility for attacks which it did not carry out, sources say.
The unit was responsible for a bomb scare at Dublin Airport three months ago and this is understood to have been sanctioned by the UVF. The UVF codeword was used when the telephone warning was made.
A senior UVF source this week described "King Rat" as "not mad but suffering from an ego problem".
It was pointed out that after the nickname "King Rat" was appended to the man, an invention by newspapers seeking a legal means to identify the man without using his name, he had a rat and a crown tattooed on his shoulder.
The man is clearly aware that he is the star media attraction in the mid Ulster area and gave many audiences to journalists during the period of the Drumcree siege.
A number of journalists have described, in breathless terms, being taken to his house, which has had fortified doors and bullet proof windows installed as a result of the repeated attempts by the IRA to kill him.
His career with the UVF began in the 1970s when, as a teenager, he hung around loyalist pubs and clubs in Portadown. He has never served a lengthy jail sentence although he was briefly held in custody on the statement evidence of another UVF man who had turned RUC informer.
In the late 1980s, there were reports that he had left Portadown after a threat to his life from his own organisation. The RUC maintains he was working for a group of men, including a former, disgraced RUC officer, who is suspected of being heavily involved in drug trafficking.
"King Rat" moved to another town in mid Ulster for about a year before returning to Portadown and reassumed his position in the local UVF.
UVF leaders are, however, understood to be angry with some of the public statements made by the man but say they were never concerned that he presented a threat to the organisation.
Senior sources in the UVF said the unit surrounding the Portadown man has only six members and is not well equipped.
However, to underline the UVF superior firepower, the organisation displayed four rifles, two submachine guns and two handguns during yesterday's picture call to announce the expulsion of the Portadown unit.
The show of the guns was clearly a message to loyalists referred to in some newspaper reports in Northern Ireland as UVF "dissidents" who have been critical of the PUP.
The PUP leadership has felt sensitive from the period of last autumn's joint government announcement about proximity talks when graffiti appeared on walls in Belfast accusing the party of backsliding.
The PUP broke off direct links with the Government last autumn and these have not been renewed although there is contact.