Opinion

Analysis: Gangland Ireland has no fear operating on streets of Belfast

PSNI and forensic officers at the scene where Warren Crossan was shot dead in Rodney Parade in the Lower Falls area of Belfast. Picture by Hugh Russell
PSNI and forensic officers at the scene where Warren Crossan was shot dead in Rodney Parade in the Lower Falls area of Belfast. Picture by Hugh Russell PSNI and forensic officers at the scene where Warren Crossan was shot dead in Rodney Parade in the Lower Falls area of Belfast. Picture by Hugh Russell

Warren Crossan had a target on his back from the day gangland criminal Robbie Lawlor was gunned down in the garden of a house in Ardoyne.

The son of murdered dissident Tommy Crossan, at just 28 years old he had already established himself as a major player in Ireland's lucrative drugs trade, described in court as the 'kingpin' of an organised crime gang.

However, while the financial gains from involvement in that world might be high, the risks are at times deadly.

Crossan helped organise the hit on Lawlor in April, a feared criminal who was responsible for the deaths of at least seven people, including the barbaric murder of teenager Keane Mulready Woods in Drogheda.

READ MORE: Revenge killing of Warren Crossan (28) sparks fears of further violenceOpens in new window ]

The 17-year-old was abducted, tortured and dismembered, his remains to be left at the homes of Lawlor's rivals as a shocking warning.

Using family connections in Limerick, Crossan negotiated a fee of £50,000 for the killing, a price Lawlor's enemies were only too willing to pay.

There was a time that the Dublin drugs lords wouldn't dare operate in republican areas of Northern Ireland for fear of paramilitary retribution.

Those days are long gone, as the murders of Lawlor in Ardoyne and Crossan in a street in west Belfast have shown.

Murder victim Warren Crossan
Murder victim Warren Crossan Murder victim Warren Crossan

One of Crossan's accomplices in the murder of Lawlor, a north Belfast man with a hefty criminal record and an ever-decreasing number of allies, was described last night as "a dead man walking".

He left north Belfast within hours of Saturday's murder but will find few doors open to him as he tries to find refuge from those loyal to Lawlor.

The Belfast drug dealers tried to dabble in a space inhabited by ruthless gangs operating south of the border for decades, and have quickly discovered this is a different world, where scores are settled swiftly at the end of a gun.

Whether the Lawlor gang carried out the murder themselves or hired gunman to take out their rival has yet to be established.

The killers would have required local knowledge and help to make their escape, but regardless of who pulled the trigger it shows a capability to operate on the streets of Belfast.

That is a stark message and one that has reverberated through the criminal underworld as gangland Ireland has shown it no longer recognises the barrier of the border.

Dublin criminal Robbie Lawlor was shot dead in Ardoyne in north Belfast in April
Dublin criminal Robbie Lawlor was shot dead in Ardoyne in north Belfast in April Dublin criminal Robbie Lawlor was shot dead in Ardoyne in north Belfast in April