DRUGS MAN PICKED OUT BY KILLERS

Gun gang catches up with victim on the run

AFTER years of being on the run, Brendan 'Bap' Campbell's life was finally
brought to a bloody end on the streets of Belfast last night.

A known drug-dealer - originally from the Poleglass area of west Belfast -
he knew his years were numbered as ruthless paramilitaries had attempted to
kill him on more than one occasion.

Knowing his life was under threat, Campbell spent his time moving from safe
house to safe house, night after night.

But the murder bids did not change his habits. He continued to sell drugs,
defying his would-be assassins, who finally caught up with him on the
Lisburn Road last night.

His life from as early as 1995 was littered with uncertainty.

In April 1995 he was attacked by gunmen in his home, and his fear of being
murdered led him to ask a judge to revoke his bail and remand him to prison.

He was also credited with launching a grenade attack on Connolly House
(Sinn Fein's Belfast headquarters) last year, phoning them up later to
claim he had carried it out.

Just last month gunmen burst into a Belfast bar on the Boucher Road, where
Campbell was drinking with a friend, and shot him twice in the chest.

Republican paramilitaries were blamed for the attack, and sources at the
time said the only reason he survived was because he was wearing a
bullet-proof jacket.

Early reports suggest last night's attack was carried out by Direct Action
Against Drugs, a cover group for the IRA.

DAAD has now murdered nine people since April 1995, beginning with the
murder of Mickey Mooney, who was killed in a city centre bar.