If any loyalist organisation lost 70 weapons in a police raid there would be panic — the loss would be obvious, and huge.

There is no indication of that panic – of that type of shockwave within loyalism.

The word “suspected” was used twice in yesterday’s PSNI statement – “suspected guns” and “suspected firearms”.

In those descriptions may be the reason for the absence of panic. Whatever UVF link there is to the weapons find detailed yesterday, there is no suggestion from that camp that one of its arms dumps has been discovered.

“There’d be people here running around pulling their hair out if it was,” one loyalist commented. “Nobody seems too worried about this,” he continued.

If 70 UVF guns had been discovered it would also be hugely embarrassing for that organisation.

Remember that in May last year it issued an endgame statement.

All recruitment had ceased. Military training had ceased. Targeting had ceased. All active service units had been deactivated, and all ordnance (weapons) had been put “beyond reach” and the International Commission on Decommissioning had been instructed.

At the time, that Commission made clear that decommissioning had not occurred, and there has been a building pressure on not just the UVF, but also the UDA, to get rid of their weapons.

“If you went out to decommission, you wouldn’t know where to start,” a loyalist commented.

He means the loyalist arsenal is scattered far and wide. There will be no inventory — no detailed breakdown of hiding places of each and every weapon.

“The acquisition and storing of loyalist weapons was not done in the same way as the IRA,” the loyalist continued.

So that source is not ruling out a possible UVF link to the events that emerged yesterday — but he is dismissive of the suggestion that the organisation’s guns have been found. “For a start, one person would not have that,” he said.

In security operations in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a UVF arms dump was discovered and an arms shipment intercepted. Given those happenings, would that organisation risk holding 70 of its weapons in one or two places?

Those who know its minds and its way of working doubt that.

So, we need more information to make a proper assessment of the find detailed yesterday.

The issue of loyalist guns still to be settled. The decommissioning demand will not go away.