In Newtonards, for instance, the local commander of the UVF is currently involved in a campaign to extort thousands of pounds from small businessmen.
Another cable, which prompted Ecuador to expel the US ambassador to the country, accused Ecuador's commander of police of using his position "to extort cash and property, misappropriate public funds, facilitate human trafficking, and obstruct the investigation and prosecution of corrupt colleagues", concluding that "corruption among Ecuadorian national police officers is widespread and well-known".
She said: "I have a simple message for the rogue operators who use intimidation to extort huge fines from hapless drivers: a Conservative government would put the cowboy clampers out of business".
They are said to be well equipped, and wealthy enough not to extort money from civilians.
The kind of perpetrators involved were hardened criminals who use rented "botnets" to extort money from their victims, or to steal intellectual property, industrial secrets and marketing plans for sale to rivals at home and abroad.
We encountered only one serious attempt to extort money at a subsequent checkpoint, and that was quickly resolved by a yoghurt-coated cereal bar.A week earlier, a Lagos policeman caught extorting money on camera was sacked.
Indonesian soldiers and GAM fighters continue to extort money from locals.
Gangsters such as Mr Bulger would mark out a territory within which they could extort local businesses and operate illicit markets selling drugs or sex.
Television news showed a video of police who had set up a roadblock to beat and extort money from passing motorists, shooting one dead.
Unions in their traditional role were pro-worker (at least, so far as their own members were concerned) but anti-consumer: they wanted high prices and restrictive practices, because they could extort a share of the loot.
There, on three separate nights in early March, a dozen policemen set up a roadblock to beat and extort money from passing motorists, casually shooting one of them dead.The victim was Mario Jose Josino, a black mechanic.
