At least 100 gangs are now known to be operating within Northern Ireland's billion-pound organised crime industry, it was revealed today.
Nearly two-thirds of the outfits are aligned to loyalist or republican paramilitaries, a major new British government report also confirmed.
The Organised Crime Task Force's latest threat assessment discovered that other networks have forged links with international organisations ranging from the Mafia to Russian mobsters and the Triads.
The multi-agency body set up to cripple and destroy the criminal empires has identified a total of 700 men and women running the operations.
Even though the authorities have scored big successes in their war against smuggling, counterfeiting, drug-dealing and extortion, it has emerged that the gangsters are increasingly branching out into other areas of crime.
It had been thought that around 80 gangs were based in Northern Ireland, but improved intelligence has uncovered more than 20 per cent who had escaped detection.
Until now loyalist and republican terror organisations were believed to have accounted for 50 per cent of the networks. But fresh intelligence has put that figure closer to two-thirds of all organisations.
The breakdown has been put at 50:50 across the sectarian divide, with the Ulster Defence Association, Ulster Volunteer Force, Provisional IRA and dissident republicans all involved.
Between April 2002 and March of this year 64 organised crime networks had members arrested and 35 groups had members prosecuted for offences ranging from attempted murder and blackmail to fraud and drug offences, the report said.
A total of 75 outfits were disrupted or dismantled, although many members have switched to other networks and moved on to other illegal areas.
Smuggling remains by far the most lucrative activity as groups exploit the land border with the Republic.
During the last 12 months nearly £7 million worth of counterfeit goods were seized in Northern Ireland. But experts have estimated this market alone is worth £136 million, or #80 per head of population.
PA