TERROR leader Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair has branded his former comrades "criminals" in the latest taunt issued from his Bolton home.

The former UDA brigadier said the organisation was "riddled with police informers, drug dealers and pimps" after former rival Jim Gray was removed from office.

Gray was "stood down" as "brigadier" on Wednesday after a crisis meeting attended by the group's top brass in Belfast. Adair, who was at loggerheads with Gray at the end of his UDA career, said: "It's in crisis. It's just a criminal gang masquerading as Loyalists.

"It's a crumbling organisation that's riddled with police informers, drug dealers and pimps."

It is the latest attack on the UDA by Adair since he was released from prison in January. He was kicked out of the UDA in 2003 following a bloody loyalist feud which saw him returned to prison to complete part of a 16-year sentence for directing terrorism. He headed for Bolton to join his wife and supporters who were exiled from his Shankill Road powerbase.

Adair also said the ousting of Jim Gray showed the organisation was "crumbling". He told newspapers in Northern Ireland that the fall of the east Belfast 'brigadier' was "long overdue".

"It's no big surprise to me. It was just a matter of time before it happened to that man. It should have happened a long time ago.

"He's nothing but a Scarlet Pimpernel who shed bad light on the UDA for many years," he said.

Adair, who lives on Chorley New Road, Horwich with wife Gina and two of the couple's children, last month returned to pose beneath loyalist murals and outside the home of UDA boss Jim Spence. Adair's squabbling with Gray was one of the factors that led to the vicious UDA power struggle of recent years.

Gray's east Belfast UDA faction has long been accused of involvement in drug-dealing and other mafia-style crimes.