Crime, Counterfeiting and Terrorism

Crime, Counterfeiting and Terrorism




Terrorist groups in Northern Ireland are running a sophisticated, multi-million pound counterfeiting and smuggling operation whose tentacles reach across the globe, The Irish Observer can reveal.

Forsaking politics for profit, loyalist and republican terror gangs have linked up with the likes of the Russian and Italian mafia and the Chinese triads to reap huge rewards from a wide variety of criminal activities.

Up to 100 criminal gangs are operating in Northern Ireland and at least two-thirds are linked to the Provisional IRA, the Ulster Defense Association and other paramilitary organizations.

The province has become a major UK hub for the sale and distribution of counterfeit goods, which is believed to have earned the gangs more than £150m in a single year.

In 2003 for example, Law enforcement agencies in Northern Ireland seize more counterfeit goods than all other UK police forces combined, but still believe they stop only 5 per cent of the total market.

According to a report published in 2003 on organized crime in Northern Ireland: 'Pubs, clubs and taxi firms who operate in districts influenced by terrorist groups are known to facilitate a lucrative trade in counterfeit goods. Door-to-door sales are also undertaken. The most popular goods include clothes, computer games, DVDs, CDs and videos.' Smuggled cigarettes are a major sourse of cash-in-hand crime for all the criminals involved including ‘dissidents’.

Much of the counterfeit clothing is believed to originate from factories in the Leicester area, while a raid on a fair in Ballycastle in 2002 was tracked back to an operation in Glasgow. A man was stopped at Belfast International Airport in 2003 having flown in from Singapore with £300,000-worth of counterfeit DVDs.

Counterfeit currency printed in Northern Ireland has been discovered all over the world. In addition to copies of sterling - complete with watermarks and foil strips that only experts can tell from the real thing - the gangs are also producing dollars and Euros, the PIRA have currency counterfeiting expertise dating back to the early 1980s.

Customs officers have uncovered a trade in counterfeit cigarettes - made in factories in the Far East with only a minimal amount of tobacco and harmful fillers. Fake vodka made from watered-down industrial alcohol has also been found.

The sale of illicit fuel, either smuggled across the border or 'laundered' from tax-free agricultural stocks, is another big earner for the terrorists. Customs officials estimate two-thirds of filling stations in the province sell some illicit fuel.

Even this trade makes use of counterfeiting skills. One gang made an exact copy of a fuel tanker, taking the company logo, number plate and livery of an existing vehicle. The bogus vehicle, used to smuggle illicit fuel, was only discovered when suspicious Customs officers following it along a motorway called the driver on his mobile and discovered he and the real vehicle were 100 miles away.

The gangs have become involved in prostitution, with hundreds of women being brought in from Eastern Europe on the promise of jobs and then being forced to work in the sex industry. A number of such women and children have been rescued by the PSNI in Northern Ireland.

Belfast in 2003 hosted Britain's first conference on organized crime. Launching a 'threat assessment' which outlined the scale of the problem, Security Minister Jane Kennedy said: 'Paramilitary groups are involved in about two-thirds of the crime groups that have been identified. It is completely unacceptable that those who were once seen as defenders of their communities have increasingly turned to organized crime, selfishly maintaining an affluent lifestyle at the expense of those who work hard to earn their living.'

Money which previously went towards the purchase of weapons is now being spent on fancy houses and flashy cars for the gang leaders. This has led to tensions in the community and resulted in turf wars as rival gangs battle for supremacy. The ‘dissidents’ are still in the business of purchasing weapons and will do business with anyone to get guns and explosives, so far they have been unable to get their hands on significant amounts of commercial explosives and are almost wholly dependant on homemade devices. Criminality in the border areas is dependent on keeping the security services off the back roads where much of the crime is carried out.

According to Professor Ronald Goldstock, a former head of the New York Organized Crime Task Force and later government adviser on crime in Northern Ireland, the paramilitary gangs are able to take advantage of a pre-existing financial and organizational structure.

'The groups start off with a bad reputation and there's enormous value in that. They are known and feared. In some ways communities have been made to believe they have to rely on them for protection. Witness protection proved effective against the mafia in New York, but doesn't work so well here. Bosses of the gangs often live on the same estates that they prey on, so many victims feel there is no escape.'

Extortion remains the cornerstone of fundraising, with 65 per cent of victims asking the police to take no action.