Pubdate: Tue, 19 Sep 2000
Source: Irish Examiner (Ireland)
Copyright: Examiner Publications Ltd, 2000
Contact:  http://www.examiner.ie/
Authors: Deric Henderson and Ian Graham

LOYALIST DRUG DEALERS BLAMED FOR BOMB

Loyalist paramilitary drug dealers have been blamed for a bomb attack which 
left a man badly injured in Northern Ireland yesterday.

Sandy Rice fell from his van with serious leg wounds when a device exploded 
under his seat as he drove through Bangor, Co. Down.

Two other men escaped the blast, just hours after a bomb wrecked the 
Shankill Road offices of the Ulster Democratic Party (UDP), the political 
wing of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA).Components for pipe bombs, the 
tail fin of a mortar bomb, balaclavas and combat clothing were later found 
in the debris, police revealed.

But it is not thought the Bangor blast is linked to fighting between the 
UDA and Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), which has left three men dead and 
scores of families having to flee their homes.

Mr Rice was head of security at a nightclub in Bangor, and had been 
threatened by drugs dealers linked to the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF), 
according to David Ervine of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP).Mr 
Ervine, a close friend of Mr Rice, a former loyalist internee who spent 
nearly 20 years living near London before returning home to set up an 
electrical business and run a boxing club, said: "This man was under 
serious threat of losing his life because of his stand against the drugs 
dealers. He has evicted these people and this is the price paid. It has 
nothing to do with the Shankill."

The men had been working in a cafe, close to the rear of a seafront hotel 
where the blue Transit van had been parked. They had just turned onto High 
Street when the blast happened. Bob Milliken and his wife Brenda were just 
yards away at the time.

Mrs Milliken said: "The driver seemed to fall out of the van. He was badly 
injured, but the other two looked to be okay. People in the crowd gave him 
first aid until the ambulance arrived."

Mr Milliken added: "There was this loud bang and suddenly a big cloud of 
smoke."

Hours earlier, an explosion destroyed a building in the Shankill Road used 
by the Prisoners Aid and Post Conflict Re settlement group, where the UDP 
also has offices.

Nobody was hurt in the blast, thought to have been carried out by the UVF.

UDP leader John White claimed the UVF has lost control of its members.

He said: "The only way this will come to an end is for the UVF leadership 
to take control of their organisation and control the thugs and bully boys 
who are running about intimidating women and children, burning people out 
of their homes and blowing buildings up."
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