Al-Qaeda's New Business Model: Cocaine And Human Trafficking

Osama Bin Laden's terrorist organization has become increasingly reliant on organized crime, including cocaine smuggling, human trafficking and kidnapping, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Friday in Manhattan's federal court. The charges filed against three alleged al-Qaeda associates by the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan is the latest chilling evidence of a convergence between terrorism and organized crime.

Oumar Issa, Harouna Touré and Idriss Abelrahman were snatched in Ghana on Wednesday by a Drug Enforcement Administration sting and shipped to New York, where they arrived on Friday to face charges of conspiracy to commit acts of narco-terrorism and providing material support to al-Qaeda, a terrorist organization. The arrests mark the first time that al-Qaeda associates have been charged with narco-terrorism offenses.

The complaint accuses the three men of agreeing to transport large amounts of South American cocaine through West and North Africa and ultimately to Spain for $2,000 a kilogram, a fee slated to be partly turned over to al-Qaeda and its affiliated group, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb, in return for protection along the route.

"It's pretty compelling evidence, but not the only evidence that has been growing that al-Qaeda and its affiliates are becoming more and more involved in the global drug trade to help fund their operations," says Michael Braun, former chief of operations at the DEA and a founder of Spectre Group International. "They have to pay for their operations somehow."

• "US arrests three Africans in al-Qaeda cocaine sting", BBC News, 12/19/09.
• "US Prosecution links drugs to terrorism", Los Angeles Times, 12/19/09.
• "Feds: Arrests in Africa line al-Qaida and drugs", New York Times, 12/18/09.
  

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Greece: Europe's illegal immigration hub

SAMOS, Greece (AP) — By day, this lush island set in the Aegean Sea offers a sanctuary to tourists seeking clear blue seas and immaculate beaches. After nightfall, a grimmer reality takes hold. Bodies sometimes wash ashore at daybreak. Human traffickers ply the waters off the coast. Patrol boats set off in pursuit of dinghies crammed with desperate migrants.

Greece's islands welcome millions of visitors every year, but they are also increasingly playing host to newcomers of a more unwelcome variety: undocumented laborers from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. In fact Greece's waters and mountains have become Europe's primary gateway for illegal immigration: Nearly half of European Union's illegal immigrants were detected at the nation's land or sea borders.

Greece says it detained more than 146,000 illegal immigrants in 2008, a 30 percent increase from the previous year and a 54 percent jump from 2006. Greece now has the highest number of illegal entries in the EU, followed by Italy and Spain, EU authorities say. On Samos alone, immigrants arrive at an average rate of 25 a day — a six-fold increase over the past two years — crossing by dinghy, jet-ski, or even swimming against fast sea currents.

• “Idyllic Greek islands become Europe's black hole for illegal immigration”, LA Times, 9/3/09.
• “Facilitated Illegal Immigration Into The European Union”, Europol, March 2008.
• “Fight against trafficking in human beings”, European Union official website.

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Rising SA gold theft funding 'terrorism, human trafficking'

Increasing gold theft from South African mines was funding international terrorism and human trafficking and amounted to a global money-laundering operation of huge magnitude, Pan African Resources CEO Jan Nelson said yesterday.

"Dirty money is coming in and clean gold is going out," Nelson stated during the company's annual results presentation, where Pan African reported a 15% increase in underground gold production and 30% earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization. “It's a money-laundering operation on a huge scale. We have to attack this problem at various levels and the role players are interacting and there is assistance from government," he said.

Pan African's security costs have risen to close to 3%, which represents a total of $15/oz of gold produced. Of that $15/oz, $7/oz goes directly towards fighting criminal miners. "Interpol is involved, because the money leaves South Africa and it's funding international terrorism and it's also funding human trafficking."

"Organised crime and terrorism: Observations from Southern Africa", Institute for Security Studies, March, 2005.

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