Editor’s Note: See also Cigarette Smuggling and Cyber Security: Low-Tech Crimes Fund High-Tech Threats.
Natural Resources Exploitation and ‘Jihadist Drugs’ Fueling Terrorist Groups
An ISIS clerk makes payments to families of dead jihadists using U.S. currency in early 2016. (ISIS image)
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The World Atlas of Illicit Flows compiled by INTERPOL, RHIPTO – a Norwegian UN-collaborating centre – and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime provides the first consolidated global overview of their significance in conflicts worldwide.
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The merged al-Qaeda groups HTS in Syria and JNIM in the Sahel make an estimated $18 million to $35 million and $5 million to $35 million, respectively, from illegal taxation, donations, kidnapping for ransom, extortion, smuggling of counterfeit cigarettes, drugs and illegal taxation.
