The Policing Oversight Commissioner has highlighted concerns about whether authorities in the North can cope with rising organised crime.
Mr Tom Constantine, who is the retired head of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, said the PSNI needed support from all sides if it was to tackle the growing problem of gangsterism.
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"The criminal organisations 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 . . . beyond the control of government," said Mr Constantine in his sixth report on the progress of reform.
He said experience from other trouble spots showed that as paramilitary violence waned following the 1998 Belfast Agreement, organised crime was likely to increase.
"It should come as no surprise that some groups, having been well-schooled in covert activities and the application of violence and terror, have found such skills readily transferable to other activities," he said.
"A number of the individuals involved have become wealthy by controlling the drug trade and extortion rackets, all at the expense of the citizens of Northern Ireland".
Mr Constantine was appointed Oversight Commissioner in 2000 to monitor the progress of change in the renamed Police Service of Northern Ireland against the blueprint laid down by Patten.