All paramilitary groupings are still involved in organised crime to support their organisations and for personal gain, the House of Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee has reported.
Continued paramilitary involvement in crime could threaten the prospects of political progress in the North, the committee warned in its report, Organised Crime in Northern Ireland, published yesterday.
The report paints a picture of a very broad spectrum of crime operating in Northern Ireland, including armed robbery, drugs smuggling and peddling, extortion, oil fraud, cigarette smuggling, intellectual property crime, illegal dumping and human trafficking.
"There is really no aspect of organised crime in Northern Ireland that there is not some form of paramilitary involvement," Conservative chairman of the committee Sir Patrick Cormack said in Armagh yesterday.
While Sinn Féin was dismissive of the report, the DUP will use it to bolster its argument that it is justified in not sharing power with Sinn Féin because the committee supports its contention that the IRA remains involved in organised crime.
