POLICE fear that the murder of a Dublin drug dealer in Belfast, which has already led to two revenge killings, will result in more bloodshed.
When Robbie Lawlor was gunned down in the Ardoyne area almost two years ago, senior gardai briefed PSNI chiefs that it was inevitable the gangland enforcer’s death would be avenged in Northern Ireland.
In the time since, two west Belfast criminals linked to his killers, best friends Warren Crossan and Mark Hall, have been murdered outside their mothers’ homes.
Sunday Life can reveal that at least two others from the north of the city, and a third west Belfast man, are on a hitlist drawn up by Lawlor’s associates.
The fact that they are in a different jurisdiction matters little because the Dublin/Drogheda-based gang of which Lawlor was a member has contracted the killings out to dissident republicans in Belfast.
Head of the PSNI’s serious crime unit Chief Superintendent Jon McVea admits this claim — put forward by various criminal sources — is a line of inquiry in the Crossan and Hall murders.
He also told this newspaper that organised crime in Northern Ireland had to be seen in the context of an all-island problem which does not stop at the border and is increasingly stretching into other parts of the UK.
The recent Belfast gangland feud killings, and the April 2020 murder of Lawlor which sparked these, are proof of this uncomfortable fact.
“Organised criminals do not operate on an ‘only in the north’ or ‘only in the south’ basis,” said Chief Supt McVea.
“They operate across Ireland and through the UK. These are cross-border and east-west networks.
“Look at Dublin and the amount of murders connected to drug dealing and the feuds that have happened there, and the sophistication of those murders.
“It’s organised crime groups — the stakes are high, the money is big and therefore their willingness to take to the gun is quicker.”
The Lawlor murder, which brought a vicious southern drugs feud north, stunned criminals across Ireland.
The 36-year-old had a chilling reputation and was linked to five murders.
The most recent was Drogheda teenager Keane Mulready Woods, who was killed in January 2020. The 17-year-old’s dismembered body parts were later found in several locations across Dublin.
Fearing reprisal attacks, Lawlor moved to Belfast, where he worked as an enforcer, collecting debts for drugs gangs.
On the day of his murder in April 2020, he went to a pre-arranged meeting at a house on Etna Drive in the Ardoyne area to pick up cash. A gunman emerged from the property, shooting him multiple times as he stood in the front garden.
Lawlor’s friends in the south quickly identified the criminal they believed set him up — Warren Crossan, whose Continuity IRA leader dad Tommy Crossan was murdered by rival republicans in 2014.
They knew Crossan had family links to Limerick through his mother Ann, and when associates of his were stopped by gardai travelling to the city with a €50,000 bounty shortly after the Lawlor killing, they became convinced of his involvement.
Less than three months later, the west Belfast man was shot dead outside his family home in the St James’ area of the city.
CCTV footage of the gunman who killed Warren Crossan
Two gunmen, who hid in a nearby house for four hours, waited on Crossan arriving for his usual Saturday afternoon visit, chasing him down the street and shooting him multiple times.
Dissident republican involvement was immediately suspected as the killers arrived and escaped on foot, showing an intimate knowledge of the area.
When Crossan’s best friend Mark Hall was murdered outside his mother’s home, also in the St James’ area, in the days before Christmas, his killers used almost exactly the same method.
The 31-year-old had left west Belfast after being released from prison in 2020, making a new life for himself in Drogheda.
But foolish promises by him of how he was going to avenge Crossan’s death — made in a town in which Robbie Lawlor had strong criminal connections — sealed his fate.
On December 18, two gunmen shot him seven times through the living room window of his family home while he was delivering Christmas gifts.
Bravado played a big role in Hall’s death. Despite knowing he was under threat, he spent the afternoon of his murder strolling around west Belfast and visiting relatives.
Confirming how he too was the victim of a contract killing, Chief Supt Jon McVea said: “Someone has commissioned him [Mark Hall] to be murdered and whether there was an opportunity to do it the next time he was spotted.
“We know he was seen out and about in the hours leading up to the murder in Belfast. He had been in his sister’s house and was out in public, so it’s not as if he had come in the back of a car, put his head down and sneaked into the house.
“He was walking about the area, fronting out, so there are any God’s amount of people who could have spotted him. If there is some degree of pre-planning, access to guns and people willing to do it, an hour’s notice is enough.”
Mr McVea would not comment on claims from both security and criminal sources that the same gunmen, believed to be dissidents connected to the ONH [Oglaigh na hEireann] group, murdered Warren Crossan and Mark Hall.
“Arrests have been made and we’re fairly content we have a firm idea of suspects,” he told this newspaper.
Detective Chief Inspector Eamon Corrigan, who is also investigating the killings, added: “It is a hypothesis that has to be considered, but you have to consider all the other hypothesis.”
What is clear though is that the Crossan and Hall murders — and that of Robbie Lawlor, which provoked both — will not bring an end to the cross-border bloodshed.
Sunday Life is aware of the identities of two men from north Belfast, and a third from the west of the city, who have had bounties placed on their heads by Lawlor’s friends.
We are not naming them over concerns for their safety.
All three were associates of slain Warren Crossan, who merely being close to, as Mark Hall found out to his cost, brings with it the risk of murder.
Anyone with information on the murders of Robbie Lawlor, Warren Crossan or Mark Hall is asked to contact the PSNI on the non-emergency 101 number, or the Crimestoppers charity on 0800 555 111.
