Graeme Biggar told the Policing Board in Belfast that his organisation was working alongside the PSNI to disrupt the activities of “quite sophisticated organised crime groups” operating in Northern Ireland.

Mr Biggar said three arrests had been made in July following an investigation into a drug-smuggling organisation.

He said: “That is a Northern Ireland-based, drug-smuggling, organised crime group that is importing drugs from Europe into the UK, including into Northern Ireland.

“They are big, they are sophisticated, we have been investigating them for some time.”

Turning to a separate investigation, he said: “We have found a money-laundering nexus in Newry.

“The location, unsurprising, it is money laundering that is going across the border, up from Dublin and into Northern Ireland.

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