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."