Paramilitary hitman linked to British right-wing group Turning Point UK

Al Jazeera exposes UK far right's links to criminal underworld.

Al Jazeera uncovers links between unionist paramilitary force in Northern Ireland and UK far right

A violent paramilitary linked to a proscribed terror group has close ties to a right-wing student group in the United Kingdom, an Al Jazeera investigation has revealed.

Allan Nesbitt, a convicted criminal who is a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), is linked to Turning Point UK (TPUK).

list 1 of 3 Garvaghy Road standoff brings Northern Ireland’s old wounds back to surface

list 2 of 3 Northern Ireland protesters block Orange Order march in Portadown

list 3 of 3 ‘Trauma still there’: A decades-old standoff returns to Northern Ireland

Our investigation, Contract Killers and the Far Right, began in 2021, when an undercover reporter from Al Jazeera joined TPUK, an independent offshoot of the right-wing US activist group Turning Point USA. TPUK has close ties to several senior British Conservative Party members, as well as to leaders of Reform UK.

TPUK’s CEO Jack Ross stood as a Conservative Party candidate in 2023. Ross introduced Al Jazeera’s undercover reporter to Nesbitt, who is from Glasgow, Scotland.

Ross made clear that he and Nesbitt had a long history together. Ross was filmed by our undercover reporter agreeing to pay Nesbitt thousands of pounds to stage a fake political rally designed to show support for the lifting of UK sanctions against Zimbabwe.

Ross also told Al Jazeera’s undercover operative that for “a certain amount”, Nesbitt and his contacts could arrange physical attacks, saying they could “kick the f*** out of someone. They can start cutting people’s faces up. That’s another amount. They can stab someone,” Ross said. “They can shoot someone. They could kill someone.”

Murder for hire, caught on tape

To test Ross’s claims about Nesbitt, Al Jazeera’s undercover operative devised a story about a business dispute with a fictional rival they wanted “dealt with”.

In a private meeting in a London hotel, Nesbitt told our reporters he could “arrange whatever you need done”, but “at a price”. This included killing the fictional person with the help of his UVF connections.

“He can have a bad accident,” Nesbitt said, confirming to Al Jazeera that the person would be “finished”.

“These c***s are terrorists. They’re f***ing trained killers,” Nesbitt added.

Nesbitt also claimed to have personally killed before.

“Things have happened in the past where it was too risky to do that [gestures firing a gun], and I’ve just pulled out a knife and stabbed the c*** to death,” he said.

In a later video call, Nesbitt showed off a shotgun, a pistol, and live ammunition to prove he had the means to follow through.

The money paid for the murder would be used to arm the UVF in Northern Ireland, Nesbitt said.

“All the money gets raised in Scotland and the things get bought in Scotland and we smuggle them into Ireland.”

According to Nesbitt, he has been involved in this weapons smuggling for many years.

“It’s us that smuggled the stuff into Ireland for them to fight the war in there,” he said, referring to The Troubles .

During that period, which began in the late 1960s, Catholic and Protestant groups in Northern Ireland fought over whether Protestant-majority Northern Ireland should remain part of the UK or join the Catholic-majority Republic of Ireland.

Those in favour of Northern Ireland remaining a part of the UK are widely known as unionists or loyalists. Those seeking to break from the UK usually identify themselves as republicans or Irish nationalists.

The UVF belonged to the Protestant loyalist side and was responsible for some of the most infamous killings and murders during The Troubles, according to Patricia Devlin, a journalist who has been investigating the group for years.

“Between 1966 and 1999, the UVF killed over 500 people,” she told Al Jazeera.

“They went on to commit atrocities such as the 1971 McGurk’s bar bomb massacre, which killed 15 people, and the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings, which killed 33 people”, she added.

But after the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that at least officially ended the Troubles, the UVF, like many other groups, transformed into a more traditional criminal gang.

“The movement has turned into drug gangs, while still using the name of the UVF,” Devlin said.

To Roy McComb, former deputy director of the UK’s National Crime Agency, Nesbitt’s claims are no surprise.

“The history of loyalism between Northern Ireland [and] Scotland is a very strong and very longstanding one.

“Operationally, there’s certainly evidence previously of firearms being trafficked, of intelligence being shared, of activists being moved between the two countries [Scotland and Northern Ireland].

“Firearms … are simply tools that can be sold and that could be sold onto the far right.”

Besides links to the UVF, Al Jazeera’s investigation also shows links between Turning Point UK and other far-right agitators in the UK. These include groups that have been at the forefront of protests against migrants and LGBTQ+ rights.

“Turning Point UK are fanboys of these kinds of people. These people are obviously a lot more physically tough than Turning Point UK. Turning Point UK know that they put these little, no far right allowed at the bottom just to protect themselves,” Ciaran O’Connor, senior analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, told Al Jazeera.

“They use these events as wedge issues upon which to try and mobilise their support and try and attack the message or the meaning of the other side, and demonise the housing of asylum seekers in society,” he added.

A former member of the UVF told Al Jazeera that the “far right in the UK is a toothless tiger”, but links between the far right and groups like the UVF could change that.

“It changes whenever you make a connection to individuals who are behind a terrorist campaign for probably 40 years, and are still armed, and still have the ability to shoot and bomb,” the former UVF member said.

“Then you’re in trouble.”

Al Jazeera notified Scottish police about Allan Nesbitt and his weapons in the interest of public safety.

Jack Ross denied our findings “completely”, telling us that everything he said to our undercover reporter was not meant seriously.

The other parties featured did not respond to our inquiries.

See the full Al Jazeera investigation here

半岛电视台揭露英国极右翼与犯罪集团的联系。

半岛电视台揭露北爱尔兰亲英派准军事部队与英国极右翼之间的联系

半岛电视台的一项调查显示，一个与被禁恐怖组织有关联的暴力准军事组织与英国的一个右翼学生团体关系密切。

被定罪的罪犯艾伦·内斯比特是阿尔斯特志愿军 (UVF) 的成员，与英国转折点组织 (TPUK) 有关联。

列表 1/3：加瓦吉路对峙事件再次揭开北爱尔兰的旧伤疤

北爱尔兰抗议者在波塔当阻挠橙带会游行（共3条记录，此为第2条）

列表 3/3 “创伤犹存”：持续数十年的对峙重返北爱尔兰

我们的调查“职业杀手与极右势力”始于2021年，当时半岛电视台的一名卧底记者加入了TPUK，TPUK是美国右翼激进组织“转折点美国”（Turning Point USA）的一个独立分支机构。TPUK与几位英国保守党高层成员以及英国改革党（Reform UK）的领导人关系密切。

TPUK 的首席执行官杰克·罗斯 (Jack Ross) 曾于 2023 年作为保守党候选人参选。罗斯将半岛电视台的卧底记者介绍给了来自苏格兰格拉斯哥的内斯比特 (Nesbitt)。

罗斯明确表示，他和内斯比特关系密切。我们的卧底记者拍到罗斯同意支付内斯比特数千英镑，让他组织一场虚假的政治集会，旨在表达对英国解除对津巴布韦制裁的支持。

罗斯还告诉半岛电视台的卧底记者，只要支付“一定金额”，内斯比特和他的同伙就能安排人身攻击，他说他们可以“把人揍得鼻青脸肿。他们可以划伤别人的脸。这又是另一个价格。他们可以捅人，”罗斯说。“他们可以开枪打人。他们可以杀人。”

雇凶杀人，被录像拍下

为了验证罗斯关于内斯比特的说法，半岛电视台的卧底特工编造了一个关于与虚构的竞争对手发生商业纠纷的故事，他们希望“解决”这个竞争对手。

在伦敦一家酒店的私人会面中，内斯比特告诉我们的记者，他可以“安排你们需要做的任何事情”，但“要付出代价”。这包括利用他与UVF的关系杀死那个虚构的人物。

“他可能会遭遇严重事故，”内斯比特向半岛电视台证实，这个人将“完蛋”。

“这些混蛋是恐怖分子。他们是受过专业训练的杀手，”内斯比特补充道。

内斯比特还声称自己以前也曾亲手杀过人。

他说：“过去发生过一些事情，那样做风险太大（做开枪的动作），我就拔出刀子把那混蛋捅死了。”

在后来的视频通话中，内斯比特展示了一把霰弹枪、一把手枪和实弹，以证明他有能力实施袭击。

内斯比特说，支付给凶手的钱将被用来武装北爱尔兰的UVF（阿尔斯特志愿军）。

“所有的钱都在苏格兰筹集，东西也在苏格兰购买，然后我们把它们走私到爱尔兰。”

据内斯比特称，他参与武器走私活动已有多年。

“是我们把这些东西走私到爱尔兰，让他们在那里打仗，”他指的是北爱尔兰冲突。

从 20 世纪 60 年代末开始的那段时期，北爱尔兰的天主教徒和新教徒就新教徒占多数的北爱尔兰是否应该继续留在英国，还是加入天主教徒占多数的爱尔兰共和国展开了斗争。

支持北爱尔兰留在英国的人通常被称为联合派或效忠派。而寻求脱离英国的人通常自称为共和派或爱尔兰民族主义者。

据多年来一直调查该组织的记者帕特里夏·德夫林称，UVF属于新教保皇派一方，并对北爱尔兰冲突期间一些最臭名昭著的杀戮和谋杀事件负有责任。

她告诉半岛电视台：“1966 年至 1999 年间，UVF 杀害了 500 多人。”

她补充说：“他们随后又犯下了诸如 1971 年造成 15 人死亡的麦格克酒吧爆炸案，以及 1974 年造成 33 人死亡的都柏林和莫纳汉爆炸案等暴行。”

但 1998 年《贝尔法斯特协议》（又称《耶稣受难日协议》）至少在官方上结束了北爱尔兰冲突之后，UVF 像许多其他团体一样，转变为一个更传统的犯罪团伙。

德夫林说：“这个运动已经演变成贩毒团伙，却仍然打着UVF的旗号。”

对于英国国家犯罪调查局前副局长罗伊·麦克库姆来说，内斯比特的说法并不令人惊讶。

“北爱尔兰和苏格兰之间的忠诚主义历史非常悠久，而且根深蒂固。

“从实际操作来看，此前确实有证据表明存在枪支贩运、情报共享以及活动人士在两国（苏格兰和北爱尔兰）之间转移的情况。

“枪支……只不过是可以出售的工具，而且可以卖给极右翼分子。”

除了与UVF的联系外，半岛电视台的调查还显示，英国转折点组织与英国其他极右翼煽动者存在联系。这些组织包括一些一直走在反对移民和LGBTQ+权利抗议活动前列的团体。

“英国转折点组织是这类人的狂热粉丝。这些人显然比英国转折点组织的人强悍得多。英国转折点组织很清楚，他们把这些小团体，也就是所谓的‘绝对不允许极右翼分子’，放在最底层只是为了自保，”战略对话研究所高级分析师基兰·奥康纳告诉半岛电视台。

“他们利用这些事件作为楔子议题，试图动员支持者，攻击对方的信息或含义，并妖魔化社会中寻求庇护者的住房问题，”他补充道。

一名前UVF成员告诉半岛电视台，“英国的极右翼是一只没有牙齿的老虎”，但极右翼与UVF等组织之间的联系可能会改变这种情况。

“当你把这些人与那些可能已经进行了 40 年恐怖活动、仍然持有武器、仍然有能力进行射击和爆炸的人联系起来时，情况就发生了变化，”这位前 UVF 成员说道。

“那你就麻烦了。”

半岛电视台出于公共安全考虑，将艾伦·内斯比特及其武器的情况通知了苏格兰警方。

杰克·罗斯“完全”否认了我们的调查结果，并告诉我们，他对卧底记者说的一切话都不是认真的。

其他相关方均未回复我们的询问。

点击此处查看半岛电视台完整调查报道。