[3] At the meeting, it was agreed to establish a vigilante group, the Woodvale Defence Association (WDA), with Smith in command assisted by Davy Fogel, who organised military drilling for the forty or so recruits, and Ernie Elliott.
[2] The WDA gained widespread notoriety and was blamed for a series of bomb attacks and shootings, most of which had been carried out by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).
Campbell claimed that the deal had been organised for the RUC to entrap the arms dealer, whom they believed to be a Provisional IRA member and a series of mistakes by the prosecution helped to ensure that the case collapsed with Smith acquitted.
[9] By the time Smith returned to Belfast in December 1972 there had been changes in the UDA with Tommy Herron in effective control of the organisation and Davy Fogel the dominant figure amongst the WDA.
[13] As part of his remit to instil military discipline, Smith moved against a culture of racketeering that had become endemic in the west Belfast UDA during his absence.
By this time Smith and Herron were recognised as the undisputed leaders of the Belfast UDA; there was a fear that whichever of the two was chosen as chairman the other one would automatically feel obliged to challenge his leadership.
[18] Fearing the growing power of Tyrie, Smith criticised the UDA leader for sending a delegation to Libya to meet Muammar al-Gaddafi, who was a hate figure for many loyalists due to his providing arms to the PIRA.
[19] Smith, who had known about the trip in advance but had raised no objections, verbally attacked Tyrie over the Libya debacle in a meeting of the Inner Council in December 1974 before declaring the following January that he intended to split his West Belfast Brigade from the rest of the UDA.
[20] Two weeks after announcing the schism Smith was attending a meeting at the West Belfast UDA's headquarters with Tommy Lyttle when he noticed a sniper on a nearby roof.
[21] Smith called a meeting of his commanders, but, on 6 February 1975, in an attack arranged in advance by his opponents within the UDA,[citation needed] a gunman burst in and shot him twice in the chest.