John White (loyalist) - Adair's Ally

Adair's Ally

As Johnny Adair moved closer towards the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) and a dissident position so too did White increasingly become associated with the renegade end of loyalism. In 1999 he strongly condemned the killing of Frankie Curry, an active dissident who originated the Red Hand Defenders covername, claiming "it's disgraceful that a man who dedicated his life to the loyalist cause should be cut down like this by people who call themselves loyalists". When Adair, who had also praised Curry, was released under the terms of the Belfast Agreement on 14 September 1999, White met him outside the prison gates and accompanied him back to the Shankill.

White meanwhile came under heavy police surveillance. As a result of what he claimed to be his success as a property dealer he had become considerably wealthy and rumours began to circulate that his wealth was actually derived from his involvement in the drugs trade. White's nickname "Coco" emerged at this time due to his alleged involvement with cocaine. Progressive Unionist Party leader David Ervine would claim that he once heard White describe himself as a "patriotic drug dealer" whilst Jackie McDonald claims that White and Adair once left a UDA Inner Council meeting, only to return a few minutes later with white dust around their nostrils. Adair's one time girlfriend Jackie "Legs" Robinson also claimed that on one occasion she had been accompanied by White to Kelly's nightclub in Portrush and that as they travelled White took out a large bag of ecstasy tablets and gave her two. At no time was White ever prosecuted for any drug related crimes however.

On 19 August 2000 White read a brief statement at a "Loyalist Day of Culture" on the lower Shankill before Adair and other UDA members, wearing balaclavas, took the stage and fired machine guns. Later that same day a bitter loyalist feud broke out between Adair's men and the local UVF, who hated Adair's LVF allies. White's office in the mid-Shankill was blown up by the UVF as soon as the feud started and in order to underline his support for Adair, White established his new office on Boundary Way, facing Adair's house. The feud fizzled out when Adair was imprisoned soon afterwards but White remained close and the following year was a regular at the Holy Cross dispute alongside Adair's brother James.

White was again on hand when Adair was released on 15 May 2002 and made a speech in which he claimed that Adair would make " a positive contribution to the peace process". On Adair's behalf, White even held a meeting with Sinn Fein's Alex Maskey to discuss peace strategies. The meeting was not sanctioned by the rest of the UDA and soon Adair was linking up with the LVF to target fellow brigadiers such as Jim Gray and John Gregg. In October 2002 both Adair and White were expelled from the UDA after a stormy meeting of the Inner Council. After Adair supporters killed Gregg in early 2003, Jackie McDonald launched an attack on Adair's lower Shankill stronghold and ran his supporters, including White, out of the area. They were put on the ferry to Scotland and ordered not to return. One of the main catalysts for the launch of the attack had been a television appearance by White the day before it happened in which he described himself as "indifferent" to the killing of Gregg, a figure widely respected in loyalism for having shot and wounded Gerry Adams in the 1980s.

White and the others were escorted to Larne by the police and immediately caught the ferry to Cairnryan. White arrived in the company of "Fat" Jackie Thompson and the two were detained for a while by Special Branch officers attached to Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary. In the immediate aftermath he told the press "I will return". However White, whose precise whereabouts are still unclear, stated soon afterwards that he was done with the UDA and loyalism in general. He was also reported as having become a born-again Christian. A 2003 Panorama programme stated White was living in the Salford area of Manchester.