Report calls for decommissioning to curb racketeering

A House of Commons report has urged for progress in the decommissioning of weapons after it was revealed that up to half of organised criminal activity in Northern Ireland is paramilitary related.

The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, which published its fourth report on paramilitary fundraising today, found that terrorists were raising up to £18 million a year to fund their organisations.

The cross-party committee said that terrorist racketeering now accounts for half of the north’s 76 known criminal networks.

The report detailed the estimated figures that each paramilitary organisation was making through criminal activity. The report states that every year the PIRA raised between £5-£8 million, the Real IRA £5 million, the LVF £2 million, and the UVF £1.5-£2 million.

Chairman of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, Michael Mates, said: "When acts of decommissioning are swiftly followed by further evidence of continued gun-running, intimidation and brutal physical assaults, including on children, by paramilitary organisations which have declared themselves to be on ceasefire, it is difficult not to feel a sense of hypocrisy. Until such fundamentally destructive acts cease, Northern Ireland cannot truly know a peaceful future."

Mr Mates said that paramilitaries from both sides had turned their energies to "lining their pockets and filling their organisations' coffers through serious and organised crime".

The committee also expressed concerns that law enforcement agencies are "under-resourced for the task required" and called on the government to make "forward provision now in its spending plans" for the substantial expansion of law enforcement capabilities.

Responding to the report, Security Minister and Chair of the Organised Crime Task Force Jane Kennedy said that "no effort will be spared in the fight against the tyranny of gangsterism".

The NIO claim that in the past year convictions have hampered the activity of 24 criminal networks. However, in spite of this record, the Organised Crime Taskforce – made up of Customs and Excise, PSNI, NIO, Home Office, Inland Revenue, National Criminal Intelligence Service and other government agencies – say that "threat assessment identifies that organised criminal enterprise in Northern Ireland remains at broadly the same level as last year".

Organised crime accounts for tens of millions in lost revenues to the Exchequer, resulting mainly from smuggling taxable goods such as cigarettes, fuel and alcohol. Paramilitary rackets also gain funds through drug trafficking, extortion, counterfeiting, blackmail, money laundering and forgery. However, violent offences like armed robbery account for 43% of all organised criminal activity.

(GMcG)