One of Northern Ireland's most feared loyalist terrorists - who has been described as a ruthless paramilitary leader linked to at least 16 violent murders, racketeering and trading in drugs and guns - wants to hide out in Cape Town or Johannesburg.
Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair - better known in Ulster than most politicians - reached cult status in unionist paramilitary circles in the early 1990s as a man who had immense underworld power, dominance and control.
After reports from Belfast, South African police are compiling a dossier on Adair and will watch out for his arrival.
Adair, former leader of the Ulster Freedom Fighters, enjoyed a large power base in Northern Ireland but former allies have now shunned him.
Adair is expecting to be freed from jail soon but said that he feared for his life outside the prison walls, according to Belfast's Sunday Life newspaper.
It quoted a senior prison source as saying Adair had been receiving brochures from estate agents about apartments and villas in Cape Town and Johannesburg.
His wife and children have already fled Ulster and are apparently waiting for his release to accompany him to South Africa.
According to the Sunday Life report, Adair has been "eyeing property in the Cape".
The prison official apparently told Sunday Life that Adair - who is alleged to have links with neo-Nazi thugs in South Africa - had also been receiving information from the South African High Commission in London about visa applications.
Adair launched his exile plan after his wife Gina and sidekick John White were forced to flee Northern Ireland, following the murder of rival Ulster Defence Association boss John Gregg, reported the paper.
Adair allegedly told fellow prisoners he would be safe from his enemies in South Africa.
The prison source is quoted as saying: "Johnny believes his former comrades will never find him and his family in South Africa.
"He also knows he will get a good deal on any properties he buys."
According to Sunday Life, Adair believed he would get political asylum in South Africa because of threat against his family.
But a spokesperson for the High Commission said Adair and his family would find it "very difficult" to gain entry to South Africa. A man who had convictions for directing terrorism "was not the type of person we want in South Africa".