Organised Crime in NI
The criminal gangs who operate in Northern Irelandare involved in a range of crime areas to maximise their own gain. Crime types such as drug trafficking, smuggling and intellectual property crime are prevalent as well as others such as extortion, racketeering and armed robbery which historically have been used by paramilitary gangs to raise funds.
The clandestine nature of organised crime and the fact that criminals conceal their activities makes it difficult to accurately calculate the damage organised crime causes society here but the sums of money involved run into hundreds of millions of pounds. Intellectual property theft is estimated at £200 million; drugs worth over £7 million were seized by PSNI in 2005/06 and some 35 million cigarettes were seized during the year, amounting to £7 million in terms of revenue. The revenue loss from fuel smuggling and legitimate cross border smuggling is estimated £245 million alone.
