The Department of Justice has published the findings of a recent survey on perceptions of organised crime.

A vast majority (91.5 per cent) of respondents said they believed organised crime was at least “fairly widespread” throughout Northern Ireland, while just 7.7 per cent said it was not widespread.

Most respondents (93.6 per cent) said drug dealing was one of the main types of crimes they associated with organised crime.

A smaller majority (86.5 per cent) believed there was a link between organised crime and ongoing paramilitary activity, despite a recent commitment from loyalist paramilitaries to respect “the rule of law”.

A majority (57 per cent) said that fear prevented them from reporting an incident or suspected incident linked to organised crime.

The Department of Justice is leading on the implementation and co-ordination of the Northern Ireland Executive’s action plan on tackling paramilitary activity, criminality and organised crime.

The survey was undertaken between October-November 2017 to assess the impact of its work and involved 938 people aged 16 plus.