The Northern Ireland Police Service (PSNI) have warned that a feud between rival loyalist gangs appears to be escalating with petrol bomb and pipe bomb attacks being carried out in recent weeks. The gangs, believed to be affiliated with the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and involved in drug trafficking, have been engaging in violent confrontations over territory and profits. This is not the first time that the UDA has been involved in a violent feud, but with the current increase in attacks, authorities are concerned that the situation could quickly spiral out of control. The PSNI are urging anyone with information about the attacks to come forward and assist with their investigation.
The PSNI has announced that a series of linked attacks in Co Down are part of a feud between two UDA drugs gangs. Eight properties have been attacked in recent days, including with pipe bombs and petrol bombs, with also attempted hijackings and graffiti daubed on properties. In response, the police have increased patrols in the North Down and Ards areas.
PSNI North Down and Ards district commander Johnston McDowell stated that “police are investigating a linked series of incidents, including criminal damage and arson with intent to endanger life… These incidents are linked to an ongoing feud between two rival drug gangs operating under the banner of the Ulster Defence Association in the North Down and Ards areas… All of these attacks are unacceptable but petrol and pipe bomb attacks are particularly reckless given their potential to cause serious damage to properties, injuries and death to anyone in the vicinity.”
The latest incident saw a man, aged in his 60s, injured after a house on Moyne Gardens in Newtownards was attacked on Sunday night, with a report of a petrol bomb attack on a house on Skipperstone Road in Bangor in the early hours of Saturday, where three people were inside the house but were not injured.
The loyalist paramilitary UDA was active during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, but has since splintered with some factions involved in criminality.
The escalating violence highlights the continuing power of organised crime in Northern Ireland. The UDA was until last year listed as a proscribed terrorist organisation under UK law, with its leadership figures facing up to ten years in prison under anti-terror legislation. However, the group was removed from the list after the Home Office concluded that it was no longer linked to terrorism, despite intelligence assessments indicating that elements within the UDA were continuing to stockpile guns and ammunition.
This is indicative of the issues that the PSNI continues to face in dealing with paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland. These groups remain the primary organisers of cross-border smuggling, and have significant involvement in the drugs trade, with fears that if these groups are not controlled or dismantled it will lead to increasingly violent territorial disputes.
The situation is exacerbated by the fact that Northern Ireland currently has no functioning government, with republican and unionist parties unable to agree on a power-sharing arrangement despite months of talks. Sinn Féin and the DUP have exchanged accusations over the murder of journalist Lyra McKee in Derry last April.
While there is a responsibility on all parties to resolve the political deadlock, any such moves should be supported by effective policing to tackle the ongoing threat posed by organised crime in Northern Ireland. The PSNI is calling for the public to remain vigilant and to share any information they may have in order to combat the current clash between rival gangs operating under the banner of the UDA.
