Hello, I've been reading about the IRA recently, particularly the modern IRA (New IRA) and for some reason I began to think about the ETA in Spain and their resemblance to the IRA (Same cause)

Now, I've had a brief read through on the history of the ETA and their efforts but what I'm more interested in, is if anyone knows if the ETA have gone down the same path as the modern IRA? In terms of extorting drug dealers and starting trouble with crime gangs etc. etc.

Do the ETA have crews going around and rolling drug dealers and shizzle?

The ETA has been involved in drugs-for-arms deals with the Camorra. ETA members have resided in Colombia and Venezuela where they reputedly trained Colombian paramilitary rebels. In turn they were seen by the Colombian groups and the Camorra groups as ideal smugglers for cocaine. ETA brought the cocaine to the Italians and in turn the Italians provided them with weapons to fight for their cause. Within Basque Country the ETA has also seized a so-called 'revolutionary tax': several of the large local businesses must pay a fee to a representative of the ETA to fund their war for independence.

As far as I know the ETA declared a ceasefire and I don't know much on their current activities. When thinking of "paramilitary terrorism" and "organized crime", the groups that have blurred the lines between the two are:
1) the Colombian paramilitaries such as FARC and the former AUC ,which has since split up into "Los Rastrojos" and "Los Urabenos". Rastrojos and Urabenos are in fact officially organized crime groups and not terrorist paramilitaries.
2) Real IRA, which has been exposed by the media as a criminal organization involved in contraband, smuggling (of all kinds), contract killing, extortion (of both drug dealers and businesses), narcotics distribution,... On the other hand, I take everything what the media says with a grain of salt as everything they say might as well be a load of bollocks.
3) Tamil Tigers, which is directly involved in extortion, loan sharking, fraud, human trafficking, weapon trafficking and the distribution of South Asian heroin.

You'll often hear stories about the "criminal activities" of the PKK and Hezbollah, that are in fact blown hella out of proportion. In Turkey there are some crime families of Kurdish descent that do in fact fund the PKK and use some PKK soldiers to protect their shipments, but that is about as much of the main connection between the PKK and organized crime. At the same time you'll find those same Southeast Anatolia-based Kurdish crime families (that are among themselves divided between the Kurmanji-speakers and the Zaza-speakers) conducting business with ethnic Turkish crime families from Central and East Anatolia (some of whom are connected with the Turkish far right Grey Wolves) and with the Laz crime families from the Black Sea region in the North of Turkey.

As for Hezbollah...the organization is depicted in Western media as this big bad muslim syndicate attempting to annihilate anything that's Western AND that's the most powerful crime syndicate on earth. This also is a gigantic load of bullshit. What the Hezbollah does do however is taking protection fees from opium growers in the Beqaa Valley. There are also some Hezbollah supporters in South American that have also laundered money for criminal cartels based in Colombia, Brazil and -to a far lesser extent- Mexico. And that's where the connection really ends. In Germany there are 5 big crime families with origins in Lebanon: the clans Miri, Al-Zein and Omeirat -which come from the Mhallami community of Lebanon, Sunni muslims with no connection the Hezbollah whatsoever-, the clan Abou-Chaker -originally Palestinians that ,like so many Palestinians, fled from a Bedouin camp and settled in one of those disturbingly inhuman Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon before immigrating to Germany. Also Sunni muslims with no connection to the Hezbollah or even Hamas for that matter- and finally the clan Chahrour, which are in fact Lebanese Shiites from Beirut with origins in the nearby Beqaa Valley (a traditional stronghold for the Hezbollah) but they as well appear to have no direct connections to the Hezbollah.

Couple of quick points:

ETA are not Spanish

The IRA didn't go down the extortion road. The IRA ceased to exist and extortionists now use its name.

I know they don't identify as Spanish.