Thanks, AuntB!
Selling Drugs to Fund Terror: Al Qaeda Linked to Cocaine Trafficking
Three al Qaeda Operatives To Be Charged in New York
Dec. 18, 2009
[snips] The arrests confirm the suspicions of the DEA that al Qaeda is providing protection for narcotics traffic and using the proceeds "to facilitate terror operations," federal sources said.
According to DEA officials, the cocaine sting was orchestrated along a route through West Africa to North Africa that serves as a gateway for transshipment to Europe. The men were arrested after an investigation in which informants and agents posed as Latin American narco-terrorists who shared anti-American interests with the men.
Colombian cartel bosses have imported wholesale the successful transshipment techniques they used in Latin America, and sent into West Africa prison-toughened traffickers like Jorge Salinas Cortez, who was recently expelled from the region. Linking the traffickers' greed with Al Qaeda's ability to protect shipments has presented the DEA with a challenging mission in "some tough areas," said Benson.
The operatives who conducted the sting posed as members of the Colombian revolutionary group FARC.
"Toure also described his strong relationship with the al-Qaeda groups that control areas of North Africa," said the complaint. "Toure stated that he has worked with al Qaeda to transport and deliver between one and two tons of hashish to Tunisia," and also cooperated with al Qaeda in human trafficking. He also allegedly told the source that he could work with al Qaeda to arrange kidnappings for ransom. Toure said that "our friends, the radicals and the Muslims" would guarantee the transport of a shipment of cocaine through the desert. "Toure clarified that the 'military people' were al Qaeda," according to the complaint. Toure then produced Abdelrahman as a member of the militia that would guard the contraband on its trip.