PART 7

Organised Crime

Interpretation (Part 7).

70.— (1) In this Part—

“ act ” includes omission and a reference to the commission or doing of an act includes a reference to the making of an omission;

“ criminal organisation ” means a structured group, however organised, that—

(a) is composed of 3 or more persons acting in concert,

(b) is established over a period of time,

(c) has as its main purpose or main activity the commission or facilitation of one or more serious offences in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit;

“ Irish ship ” has the meaning it has in section 9 of the Mercantile Marine Act 1955 ;

“ serious offence ” means an offence for which a person may be punished by imprisonment for a term of 4 years or more;

“ structured group ” means a group that—

(a) is not randomly formed for the immediate commission of a single offence, and

(b) does not need to have formally defined roles for its members, continuity of its membership or a developed structure.

(2) For the purposes of this section facilitation of an offence does not require knowledge of a particular offence the commission of which is facilitated, or that an offence actually be committed.