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Police deny Consett fire linked to crime racket
Page 14
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REPORTS CONNECTING a 24-hour blaze at a haulage yard with a criminal protection racket have been dismissed as "speculation" by police.
But the blaze at Consett Commerical's depot in County Durham is being treated as arson. It shares strong similarities to a multi-million pound series of attacks in the late 1980s and 1990s.
It is believed the windows of several vehicles were smashed before petrol bombs were thrown in, causing at least f100,000-worth of damage. The same method was used during the string of previous attacks, all of which detectives linked to protection threats.
Two men were jailed earlier this year for the lire bombing of haulage and transport sites across Tyneside and Wearside. A Northumbria Police spokesman confirmed after the trial that the files on several more fires were still open and -investigations into the criminal connection were continuing-.
No one at Conseil Commercial on the town's Grove Industrial Estate was willing to comment.
Fire crews threw a 200-metre cordon around the haulage yard, which contained several acetylene cylinders, before declaring it safe 24 hours later.