Italy official alleges mafia-terror ties

Bakersfield Californian ^ | 4/20/04 | Frances D'Emilio - AP

[NormsRevenge]

ROME (AP) - Italian mobsters and Islamic terrorist groups have forged links in arms and drug trafficking, Italy's top anti-Mafia investigator said. Pierluigi Vigna, Italy's national anti-Mafia prosecutor, singled out a Naples mob known as the Camorra, which deals in arms and drugs, among other rackets.

"There are ties without doubt," Vigna told reporters Monday at a briefing at the Foreign Press Association. "We have evidence that Camorra groups are implicated in exchange of arms for drugs with terrorist groups," Vigna said.

Asked if these were Islamic terrorist groups, he replied, "Muslim terrorist groups."

He said judicial secrecy prevented him from describing the evidence. But Vigna suggested that the collaboration might have begun when a Camorra member who converted to Islam met fellow Muslims jailed in Italy. He didn't identify any of the inmates or elaborate on how they may have worked together.

Vigna, who wants his office to handle terror probes as well as organized crime investigations in Italy, said there were already examples of mobsters working with foreign groups - such as Italian criminals dealing with Colombian FARC guerrillas in cocaine trafficking.

Vigna said prosecutors in Sicily and Calabria, both strongholds of organized crime, have concluded that mobsters there have made alliances with foreign groups trafficking in illegal immigrants.

[NormsRevenge]

fyi

[NormsRevenge]

FRom InfoPlease.com

Camorra , Italian secret criminal association in Naples. Of controversial origin, it first came to light in 1830. Its activities spread by intimidation, blackmail, and bribery until Naples was controlled by it. The Camorra appears to have been used by the Bourbon rulers of Naples as a quasi-police network to crush opposition. Efforts to break the power of the Camorra, begun in the 1880s, culminated in the 1911 murder trial at which numerous members were convicted. The Camorra was suppressed and supplanted after Benito Mussolini's takeover in 1922.

[Semper Paratus]

"It's only business"

[Lion in Winter]

And from what country or regions do some of these muslim gangsters/mobsters hail?? Care to venture a guess?

[adam_az]

BUT - BUT - AL QAEDA WOULE NEVER COOPERATE WITH NON-MUSLIMS!!!!

Just like the crap that AQ and Iraq would never have cooperated... Yeah, right.

[Fedora]

I've always assumed this because of terrorists' drug-trafficking involvement, which Clair Sterling documented as early as 1981 in The Terror Network. In the 1980s the PLO's Monzer Al-Kassar, who was linked to the Mujadeen roots of Bin Laden's organization, was also running drugs partly using Mafia-linked channels such as BCCI and the Medellin cartel ("BCCI's relationships with convicted Iraqi arms dealer Sarkis Soghanalian, Syrian drug trafficker, terrorist, and arms trafficker Monzer Al-Kassar, and other major arms dealers. Sarkenalian was a principal seller of arms to Iraq. Monzer Al-Kassar has been implicated in terrorist bombings in connection with terrorist organizations such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Other arms dealers, including some who provided machine guns and trained Medellin cartel death squads, also used BCCI. Tracing their assets through the bank would likely lead to important information concerning international terrorist and arms trafficker networks.": The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations United States Senate by Senator John Kerry and Senator Hank Brown, December 1992, 102d Congress 2d Session Senate Print 102-140: Chapter 23: Appendix--Matters For Further Investigation, Witnesses and Writs, Note 4; cf.Matthew Brunwasser, "Monzer Al Kassar: The Prince of Marbella: Arms to All Sides"; ).