CONFIDENTIAL
Scale and Nature of Terrorist Fundraising in Northern Ireland
1.
Racketeering has been a significant feature of life in Northern
Ireland since the early 1970's. It is orchestrated by terrorists,
and is the mainstay on which terrorist organisations, Republican and
Loyalist, rely to obtain the finance needed to carry out their
campaigns of violence. The intelligence agencies estimate that the
Provisional IRA (PIRA) raises over £8M annually from various sources
including members social clubs, frauds in the construction industry,
gaming machines, video piracy, taxis offering an alternative "bus"
service in Republican areas, and smuggling. In recent years PIRA
has increasingly attempted to "legitimise" its finances. The
finances of the other Republican terrorist groups are less well
organised than those of PIRA. There is less discipline amongst
loyalist terrorist groupings with the result that criminality with
the aim of personal gain has, until recently, underpinned
racketeering. There is a distinctive, heavy dependence on
extortion.
Large sums are involved but, unlike PIRA, loyalist
racketeering is not centrally managed.
Formation of the TFD
2. In September 1987 the then Secretary of State for Northern
Ireland decided that special measures were necessary to tackle the
growing problem of terrorist racketeering and 'legitimisation' of
terrorist finances. He established a multi disciplinary task force
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of financial experts the Terrorist Finance Unit (TFU)
recently named the Anti Racketeering Unit (ARU). It was
until
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CONFIDENTIAL
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