The RUC Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, yesterday said there were "intelligence indications" that the IRA shot dead a Belfast drug-dealer, Edmund McCoy, on May 28th, the day after the Ulster Unionist Party voted to go back into government with Sinn Fein.
Sir Ronnie said he had spoken to the officer in charge of the investigation and, as of yesterday, he still had an "open mind" but referred to "certain intelligence indications" (understood to be the RUC Special Branch) that the IRA was responsible.
His assessment came after Garda sources indicated that the Provisional IRA was responsible for shooting dead two drug dealers in Dublin this year and trying to murder a third man.
Sir Ronnie was asked yesterday about the killing of Mr McCoy (28), from west Belfast, who was killed in the Motte'n'Bailey pub in Dunmurry, south Belfast. The IRA had threatened Mr McCoy, his associates said.
The IRA has killed between 16 and 18 men suspected of drug-dealing since beginning its ceasefire process.
On February 26th two gunmen, who gardai believe are IRA members, shot dead Mr Joseph Foran, a heroin dealer from Finglas as he sat in his car outside his home in Glasanaon Road.
On May 2nd another minor criminal figure and drug-dealer, Mr Thomas Byrne (41), was shot dead as he was drinking with friends outside a pub in Summerhill, Dublin. The main murder suspect is an IRA man from north Dublin.
On April 18th two IRA men were intercepted by gardai as they were apparently about to kill a south Dublin criminal, Mr Seamus Hogan. A gun was found at the scene, and documents on Mr Hogan's movements were recovered in the apartment of one of the gunmen. No charges have been brought.
In Northern Ireland the IRA, occasionally using the covername Direct Action Against Drugs (DAAD), has been involved in the killing of 12 men suspected of involvement in drug-dealing. The families of several victims have disputed this, claiming they were the victims of grudges by the IRA.
Last year the IRA shot dead two men in Newry, Mr Brendan Fegan (24) and Mr Paul Downey (37), for drug-dealing in the town. Mr Fegan was also suspected of being a police informer in both the Republic and Northern Ireland.
The IRA has also carried out about 46 recorded punishment beatings and shootings, mostly in Northern Ireland but including two in Dundalk. In one recent "punishment" attack the north Belfast IRA, headed by an Ardoyne man in his 30s, held a youth to the ground and smashed holes in his legs and body with a pick-axe. The youth, one of a family of 10 who had been involved in taking a car, is said to be making a slow recovery in hospital.