Hi °C | Lo °C A CRIMINAL nicknamed ‘Baby Boy' is under a death threat because he owes €10,000 to one of Ireland's biggest drugs gangs. The Tallaght-based thug survived an assassination attempt last week when a gangland hit was foiled after gardai found a loaded Glock.
However, he is still under serious threat after "getting in way over his head". The dealer, who is in his 20s, built up a debt to notorious trafficker Paul Rice (42) – the leader of a gang of veteran thugs who are involved in a wide ranging campaign of intimidation across the Southside of the city. Rice and his crew, who include Gerard ‘Hatchet' Kavanagh, previously told Real IRA gang boss Alan Ryan to "f *** off " when the RIRA came looking for protection money last year.
"These brutes are causing major concern," a senior source remarked.
Rice's most serious conviction was when he was jailed for 10 years in July 1995 after he pleaded guilty to the armed robbery of a bank in which shots were fired.
He escaped on horseback after the hold-up and a security guard was kicked and beaten on the head with a lump hammer.
Sources believe he has resumed his criminal activities since being released from jail.
His most serious brush with the law was when he was arrested by gardai investigating a kidnap and torture incident at a house in Lucan in October last year.
Scalded
The victim was beaten and scalded with boiling water but refused to complain to gardai about the attack.
The man had been abducted from his home near Magheraflet, Co Derry, and then brought across the border to a house in Dublin.
He managed to escape from the property at Tandy's Lane, in Lucan, after his captors fell asleep.
The kidnap victim staggered to Lucan Garda Station half-naked and covered in blood and raised the alarm.
In a matter of minutes patrol cars were on the scene and three men were arrested.
Rice was released after spending two days in garda custody and will not face charges in relation to the incident.
Heroin
Among Rice's key associates are a notorious heroin dealer from the south inner city.
He can't be named here because he is facing serious gang-related charges.
This feared 26-year-old criminal was previously jailed for eight years -- with two suspended -- after he was caught with heroin worth more than €400,000.
Rice is also strongly linked to members of 'Fat' Freddie Thompson's gang and Paul 'Hippo' Ward -- the Crumlin- based criminal who was convicted of the murder of crime journalist Veronica Guerin.
Ward (47) was handed a life sentence in 1998 after being found guilty of planning the murder of Veronica.
Supergrass
His conviction was later quashed when the Court of Criminal Appeal ruled that too much weight had been given to the evidence of supergrass Charles Bowden.
Ward was also a ringleader in the Mountjoy Prison riots of 1997, and had to serve 12 years for his part in the violent stand-off with prison guards while he was on remand.
The Co Kildare-based thug and a gang of inmates held four warders in the segregation unit for three days. They were armed with blood-filled syringes and steel table legs.
The guards were also threatened with being hanged and had nooses tied around their necks.
kfoy@herald.ie
