'My friend told me we would be killed if we didn't pay protection money'

A shop owner has told BBC News NI they had not even opened the doors of their new business before paramilitaries were asking for protection money.

"My friend told me we would be killed if we didn't pay", the shop owner explained.

A form of extortion, weekly or monthly payments are made by business owners who are promised protection by paramilitaries in order to trade without becoming a target.

The Justice Minister, Naomi Long, has described protection money forced on businesses as a "stranglehold' on the community".

The shop owner, who spoke anonymously to BBC News NI, said: "When I came to open my business, two men came in. They told me you're a woman, you need protection. I said why would I pay you? (Expletive) off.

"They'd see you setting up, getting the front sorted and approach.

"What's the point in calling the police? Nothing happens.

"One friend said to me, If we go to the police, we would be killed. Police don't do anything, why should we talk if we can't be protected?"

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) organised crime branch has rejected such claims, and said those behind extortion would face the full weight of the law.

They said intimidation will never be tolerated.

More than 25 years after the Good Friday Agreement, the practice of shops, salons and restaurants handing over their cash to paramilitaries in order to trade still exists.

Payments are often taken under duress and are in exchange for agreeing not to hurt them or damage their property.

BBC News NI has also heard of indirect ways of paramilitaries ask for money from businesses.

One retailer said: "I have never been asked to pay for protection, but they asked me to contribute to the community activities which I did do".

Long said high streets and construction sites are still paying paramilitaries to protect their businesses from threat of violence, in a "culture of fear".

"The level of coercive control, the fear of reprisals, of intimidation, the fear that their business might be attacked or burned down, the fear that their family might be attacked.

"All of that puts a real pressure on people not to talk about this, so there is a culture of fear that's created."

In 2024 a public awareness campaign called Ending the Harm was launched by the Executive Programme on Paramilitarism and Organised Crime (EPPOC).

Part of the campaign saw the erection of billboards and posters across Belfast, highlighting organised crime and paramilitary activity and the impact it has on victims, their families, local communities and wider society.

Even in Long's own constituency of east Belfast, businesses have spoken about the pressure they have been put under.

She said one trader she had spoken to had been told they had to pay for protection.

When they asked who they needed protection from, Long said they were told "protection from us".

Long said: "We hear many of these organisations talking about wanting to go out of business, talking about no longer wanting to be on the stage.

"Well there's a really simple way to exit the stage and one of them is to stop coercing people into giving you money.

"Stop exploiting businesses, stop the racketeering and all of the other things that are going on."

Both loyalist and republican paramilitaries are behind the practise according to Long, and she wanted to reassure those who have been targeted that they should report it to authorities.

She said the justice bill that is currently going through the Assembly will introduce new legislation which creates offences of controlling or participating in organised crime.

"If you're involved in racketeering and extortion, you will be convicted and that's a message I suppose we need to send to those who are involved," she said.

Det Ch Supt Emma Neill, who heads the PSNI's Organised Crime Branch said paramilitaries use a "regime of fear and physical violence" to exercise control over communities.

She said the fear of reprisals often means victims are too afraid to come forward and speak up.

"Our communities don't want to, and don't deserve to, live in fear of threats of violence.

"We know how much of an impact these threats can have; but we cannot help if the criminality is not reported."

"Everyone deserves to live without fear, and those who attempt to control communities through threats or violence will face the full weight of the law," she said.