WASHINGTON Ñ Islamic insurgency groups increasingly rely on the illegal drug trade as their primary source of financing, U.S. officials testified yesterday.
Two State Department officials said money from
drugs could replace funding from Islamic charities in the wake of a U.S.-led
effort to freeze the assets of groups as the Lebanese-based
Hizbullah, Al Qaida and Egypt's Gamiyat Islamiya. These organizations have traded in such drugs
as cocaine and heroin to finance their activities, the officials said.
Assistant Secretary of State Rand Beers and State Department counter-terrorism chief Francis Taylor
testified about the connection between drugs and insurgency groups
Wednesday during a hearing by the Senate subcommittee on technology,
terrorism and government information.
"Relationships between drug traffickers and terrorists benefit both," a
statement presented by Beers and Taylor said. "Drug traffickers benefit from
the terrorists' military skills, weapons supply, and access to clandestine
organizations. Terrorists gain a source of revenue and expertise in illicit
transfer and laundering of
proceeds from illicit transactions."
The State Department officials said Hizbullah smuggles cocaine from
Latin America to Europe and the Middle East. They said the group has
smuggled opiates out of Lebanon's Bekaa valley, although poppy cultivation
there has dwindled in recent years.
The State Department has determined that Islamic insurgency groups are
also involved in the drug trade in South America. The officials said such
groups as Al Qaida and the Egyptian Gamiat Islamiya are engaged in drug
trafficking and money laundering in the so-called tri-border area that links
Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.
"Since it transferred its base of operations to Afghanistan, Al Qaida
has been sustained by a government that earned a substantial part of its
revenue through taxes on opium production and trafficking," the officials
said. "Afghanistan's opiate trafficking, which accounts for more than 70
percent of the world's supply, was reportedly advocated by Osama Bin Laden
as a way to weaken the West."
"Its involvement in drug trafficking and other illicit activity may
expand as state sponsorship declines," the officials said.
The officials said insurgency groups and drug traffickers use similar
methods to transfer money and organize activities. This includes the use of
"hawala," or the informal transfer of funds used by expatriates in the
Persian Gulf.
The United States has also determined that Kurdish insurgents are
involved in the drug trade. The officials said the Kurdistan Workers' Party
charges fees for the transfer of drugs and some members of the group engage
in heroin traffic.
