Gun law

COMMUNITIES are responding to loyalist social media appeals for information on drug dealers, a local councillor has claimed.

The DUP's George Duddy says lack of confidence in policing has led people to “choose a different path” in confronting the menace of drugs in their communities.

And he suggests the public's willingness to co-operate with paramilitaries helps explain a year-long spate of gun attacks in Coleraine and the surrounding area.

In response police have insisted the gunmen are only interested only in cementing control of communities and, in some cases, protecting their cut of the drugs trade.

*Full story in this week's Chronicle*