The Irish Republican Army is among the most sophisticated organised crime gangs in the world, a former Northern Ireland Security Minister has told the BBC. The group had forged an alliance with a network of criminal gangs - links made while IRA members were locked up for long periods in high-security jails in Britain - and was involved in large-scale cigarette and fuel smuggling rackets, Ian Pearson told the File on Four investigative program, which was to be broadcast last night. The activities centred on the laundering of hundreds of millions of pounds, some of which was reinvested in elaborate schemes to bring illicit fuel and tobacco into Britain, Mr Pearson said.The IRA was now "perhaps the most sophisticated organised criminal grouping to be found anywhere in Europe, possibly anywhere in the world", he said. The report also quoted police and customs sources on both sides of the Irish border as saying that the IRA was involved in a "significant percentage" of cigarette and fuel smuggling in Britain. Expert techniques were applied to "launder" fuel on an industrial scale, removing the marker dyes from low-tax diesel intended for agricultural or central heating use in order to allow it to be used illicitly by road vehicles. Meanwhile, a small bureau de change allegedly controlled by the IRA near the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland had banked $US475 million ($A603 million) in cash, some of which was used as "venture capital" to fund criminal activities.