Elements of the RUC colluded with loyalist paramilitaries throughout the 30-year conflict. The Special Patrol Group was formed in the late 1960s as the Police Reserve Force. The name was changed to avoid confusion with the newly formed part-time Police Reserve in 1970, and was renamed "Divisional Mobile Support Unit" (DMSU) in 1980 after two of its members were convicted of kidnap and murder. The two, John Weir and Billy McCaughey, implicated some of their colleagues in a range of crimes including giving weapons, information and transport to loyalist paramilitaries as well as carrying out shooting and bombing attacks of their own. Weir alleged that senior officers, including Chief Superintendent Harry Breen, were aware of and approved of their activity.