Terror groups 'raise funds through drugs' [View All]

Source: The Australian

Terror groups 'raise funds through drugs'

From correspondents in Herzliya | September 10, 2007

NEARLY half of the 42 groups considered by the United States to be terror organisations fund their activities through drug trafficking, a top US official said in Israel today. The Drug Enforcement Administration's Michael Braun told a conference on The Global Impact of Terrorism, organised by the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, that the DEA "linked 18 of the 42 officially designated Foreign Terrorist Organisations (FTO) to drug trafficking activities of some sort".

The DEA's assistant administrator, chief of operations, told delegates the phenomenon is due to the fact that state support for terrorism has receded, and that terror organisations - al-Qaeda in particular - have "shifted from a corporate structure to a franchise structure".

Mr Braun said nothing is more profitable than drugs in raising cash for such groups. The United Nations estimates that narcotics trafficking is worth $US322 billion ($388.96 billion) annually across the globe, and $US65 billion ($78.52 billion) alone in the United States, according to federal figures.

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"That's what the Taliban are doing now in Afghanistan," Mr Braun said. "They are taxing farmers, but we have indications that they started providing security. That's what happened to the FARC 15 years ago."



Read more: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22391495-12377,00.html

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