Ian Brown: UVF torches disabled drug baron’s mobility car as warning to dealers in Belfast

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunday-life/news/uvf-torches-disabled-drug-barons-mobility-car-as-warning-to-dealers-in-belfast/a786577391.html

The UVF has been blamed for torching the mobility car of a wheelchair-using drugs boss involved in a £1.25m cocaine supply plot.
Ian Brown is awaiting sentencing for his part in a brazen bid to smuggle huge quantities of the class A drug and cannabis into Northern Ireland from the north of England.
The haul was hidden in the cab of a lorry driven by his co-accused Donald Moore, who was caught by police at Larne Harbour in December 2021.
At around 11pm last Tuesday, three masked men poured a flammable liquid over Brown’s benefits car and set it alight as it was parked outside his house on Snugville Street in the heart of the loyalist Shankill Road in Belfast.

Some of the drugs found in Moore's lorry
According to police, the trio had their faces covered, were wearing dark clothing and made off in the direction of Tudor Avenue after the arson attack.
Loyalist sources told Sunday Life the UVF carried out the attack as a warning to drug dealers in the area.
The terror gang has pledged to oppose drug dealing and criminality in return for millions of pounds of taxpayer funding for its community projects.
However, the promise has been branded “empty” by loyalist insiders who accuse the UVF of hypocrisy, pointing to how the paramilitary group still extorted businesses and was heavily involved in loan sharking.
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They also said that if the UVF was really serious about tackling drug dealing, it would take on the UDA, which is the biggest supplier of cocaine and cannabis on the Shankill.
Locals said drug dealer Ian Brown had his car set on fire by the UVF because he was not affiliated to the UDA.
Had the disabled 43-year-old been, he would have been left alone.
Brown was arrested after an undercover police operation tracked co-accused Donald Moore, with an address on Forthriver Road, and caught him with 39 kilos of cocaine, cannabis and ketamine hidden in the bunk of his lorry cab.
The pair initially denied any involvement in drug
dealing, but in May they both admitted a series of charges arising out of the police sting.

Scorch marks on the road outside Brown's home
Moore (61) pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs, conspiracy to supply class B drugs and possessing £4,700 of criminal cash. Brown admitted conspiracy to supply class As and two counts of conspiracy to supply class Bs.
In a previous hearing, a police officer explained how the drugs took up the entire bunk area of Moore’s lorry cab, saying: “It is inconceivable that the defendant was not aware of their presence”.
It was also revealed police officers in Yorkshire and the West Midlands had examined footage of a man allegedly putting a bag containing the £1.25m of drugs in his lorry at a motorway services in England.
Giving evidence at an earlier hearing, a detective said this “very identifiable” bag, discovered in Moore’s lorry cab, was found to contain seven blocks of cocaine.
“We believe this would be an indication of a person with reasonable standing within the organised crime gang we assert he is a part of,” the officer added.
This led to the arrest of a third man, Mohammed Khan, of Salt Street in Bradford, who has admitted a single charge of conspiracy to supply cocaine.
Moore is currently on remand and awaiting sentencing, while Brown is on bail.
In relation to the attack on Brown’s car, police have asked anyone with any information to contact them on 101, quoting reference number 2034 of 25/06/24.