Godfathers! - Tapa blanda

'Godfathers' is the story of the Northern Ireland drugs trade. It names the names and tells the stories of the dealers and their enemies. Dealers like Brendan 'Speedy' Fegan and Brendan 'Bap' Campbell, two of the brashest, highest-living, most cavalier young gangsters in Belfast. They loved the high life, the flash cars, the wads of money, the champagne lifestyle, the wild women. They both ended up on a pathologist's slab, gunned down by the paramilitaries. But 'Godfathers' also reveals that the paramilitaries are in the drugs trade too. We meet Ulster's porn queen who was the live-in lover of a UVF commander of North Belfast: she too graduated to the drugs trade. We meet the hard men who drive the trade. We look at the huge drugs problem in Ian Paisley's constituency. We look at the links between the UVF, the late Billy Wright and the late Martin Cahill 'The General'. King Rat and The General were in business together. McDowell reveals how the UDA and UVF are into drugs in a big way. He reveals that the Provisional IRA, despite their campaign against many dealers, have been prepared to bankroll major drugs operations in return for protection money. 'Godfathers' gives you the story from the streets.

Jim McDowell is the Northern Editor of the 'Sunday World'.