Pearson highlights 'serious threat' of crime gangs

Northern Ireland faces a "serious threat" from organised crime and greater cross-border co-operation is needed to counter the surge of illegal activity, according to Security Minister Ian Pearson.

Addressing members of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee (NIAC) at Stormont yesterday, Mr Pearson, who also chairs the Organised Crime Task Force (OCTF), said that improving intelligence and analysis had identified 230 organised crime gangs.

To combat cross-border crime networks, PSNI, Customs and An Garda Siochana will later this month unveil the first jointly developed cross-border 'Threat Assessment' which is designed to "raise the co-operation between law enforcement agencies, north and south, to a new level".

Mr Pearson said that intelligence would feed into the partner agencies' operational response and would equip them to do more on the ground.

"The frequency of successful operations right across Northern Ireland is, we feel, a good sign of how that information is being applied. Customs for example, mount operations in some shape or form practically every working day of the year," he said.

“We also know much more about how the border is being exploited by the criminals. And with the support of the Irish government we have established mechanisms to tackle those who think they can use the land boundary with impunity to their advantage. Over the past year, there have been a number of very successful cross-border investigations into organised crime."

The hour-long briefing with NIAC and the OCTF came the end of two days of evidence gathering on hate crime in Northern Ireland.

(gmcg)