U.S. Charges 3 in Drug Case With Helping Al Qaeda

New York Times ^ | 12/17/09 | WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM

[AtlasStalled]

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan unsealed narcotics and terrorism charges on Friday against three West Africans they identified as associates of Al Qaeda and a related terrorist group.

While the United States Drug Enforcement Administration has long maintained that Al Qaeda has been involved in drug trafficking, officials at the agency said the case represented the first time such charges had been brought against people linked with the group.

The three men — identified as Oumar Issa, Harouna Touré and Idriss Abelrahman — were arrested on Wednesday in Ghana and flown to the United States on Thursday night, law enforcement officials said.

They were charged with narcotics terrorism conspiracy, the officials said, as well as conspiracy to provide material support to terrorist groups — Al Qaeda and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

[AtlasStalled]

The U.S. better get more serious in the war on drugs, and start shutting down the U.S.-Mexico border and going after the drug trafficking organizations -- whether Mexican drug cartels or traditional Mafia groups -- because the lines between terrorism and organized crime increasingly are blurring.

[Sacajaweau]

Have a circa 1930 newspaper “America’s Biggest Problem”-DRUGS