Commissioner warns of rising
organized crime in Northern Irleland

BELFAST (AP) - Rising organized crime in Northern Ireland has heightened fears that the government cannot deal with it, the official overseeing the province's police reform said in a report Tuesday.

The American law enforcement expert, Oversight Commissioner Tom Constantine, urged all sides to back the new police service's offensive against the gangsters.

"The criminal organizations that control the traffic in illegal drugs, carry out contract executions and extort the legitimate business community are contributing to a perception by some of lawlessness that is beyond the control of government,'' Constantine's report said.

The warning was in a report on progress made toward reshaping the Northern Ireland police force _ a key goal of the 1998 peace accord.

As reforms are carried out, concerns have grown that organized crime families are adding a major new threat to that posed by Northern Ireland's paramilitary groups.

Constantine said full support for the service was needed to stem the tide of crime.

"The only answer to combating such lawless and violent behaviour by criminal gangs is a police service that is professional, fully resourced and well-supported by the community, along with an accepted judicial system,'' he said.

The government has pledged a crackdown on smuggling, drugs, extortion and prostitution rackets.

The reform plans were recommended by European Union commissioner Chris Patten, whose 1999 report recommended sweeping changes to the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the predominantly Protestant police force in this British territory.

Constantine, former commander of the New York State Police and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, was appointed in 2000 to measure whether changes adhered to the Patten blueprint.

May 6, 2003