Archive for June, 2009
18.06.09 Taliban, Al Qaeda finances recovering
Posted by: BTC in General News & Cases on June 22nd, 2009
Investigation shows Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan get money from extortion, crime and drugs.Taliban refer to extortion money as tolls, taxes or zakat
PESHAWAR: For the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, money is coming mostly from extortion, crime and drugs, an AP investigation claims
Funding for the Al Qaeda is more diverse and included money from new recruits, donations from sympathisers, and a cut of profits from honey dealers in Yemen and Pakistan.
“With respect to the Taliban, the narco-dollars are a major, if not majority, of their funding sources, and I think add in there as well extortion and kidnapping,” said Juan Carlos, a former US National Security Council adviser on terrorism who now works at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Afghanistan produces more opium than any other country in the world. The Taliban charge drug kingpins to move the opium through their territory. The United Nations estimates their annual cut to be more than $300 million.
‘Taxes’: The Taliban refer to extortion money as tolls, taxes or zakat. Money from drugs and criminal gangs makes up roughly 85 to 90 percent of Taliban revenue, estimates John Solomon of the US Military Academy’s Counter Terrorism Centre. In Pakistan, the NWFP governor puts the Taliban’s annual earnings at roughly Rs 4 billion.
Taliban soldiers are paid nearly $100 a month, more than the average Pakistani policeman. A Taliban commander gets more than $350 a month.
The informal money transfer system known as hawala or hundi is flourishing in Pakistan and Afghanistan as well as the US. Former prime minister Shaukat Aziz said more than $5 billion went out of Pakistan every year through this system, which operates without regulation.
In three of the last five years, the top source of money transfer into Pakistan through hawala has been the US, a security official said.
After September 11, 2001, the financial crackdown closed some of Al Qaeda’s sources of funding. But with the help of the hawala system, it has since re-established its money line.
Over the last two years, it has turned up the call for donations, told new recruits to bring money with them, and shown signs of being more frugal. This can either mean that it is saving up for another 9/11-style attack, or that the crackdown has curbed its fundraising ability.
Estimates of Al Qaeda’s annual spending vary wildly from $300 million to as low as $10 million.
Carlos said its main expenses were payments to families; food and shelter to maintain operations; travel and logistics; money for cells engaged in plots; bribes, and expenses for long-term plans like anthrax research.
Some charities with alleged Al Qaeda connections have renamed themselves. In Kuwait, the Revival Islamic Heritage Society, believed by the US to be heavily financing Al Qaeda, is still operating.
Because of demands from the International Monetary Fund, Pakistan has removed restrictions on the amount of money that can be brought into the country. It has limited to $10,000 the money that can leave the country, cracking down on some of the biggest hawala dealers.
“Once the money is inside the country, it is difficult to locate it. Smugglers and transporters help finance the Taliban either out of sympathy for their cause or because they are being forced to give a share,” said a security official.
A cartel of honey dealers is back in business, laundering money and moving drugs but the scale is smaller than in 2001.
A former fighter with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar told AP honey is sent from Pakistan with an inflated price tag to markets in the Middle East and the profits sent by courier to Al Qaeda.
Honey dealers in Peshawar said that there was no Al Qaeda link to their sales. But one honey dealer said the outlawed Al Shifa Honey Press was still operating in Punjab. He said he knew of no Al Qaeda affiliation
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5 June 2009 EUROPE’S ‘BIGGEST PEOPLE SMUGGLER’ JAILED FOR PIZZA PLOT
Posted by: BTC in General News & Cases, SOCA - Latest News on June 5th, 2009
An Afghan criminal who boasted he was Europe’s biggest people smuggler has been jailed for 9 years for smuggling illegal immigrants into the UK.
Two other members of the people smuggling gang were today sentenced to a total of 19 years.
The gang is known to be responsible for the illegal immigration of more than 230 young men into Europe, mainly from Pakistan and Afghanistan, although the actual figures are likely to be higher. Almost half of those were smuggled into the UK. The victims were then set to work in pizza outlets to pay off their ’debt’ of up to £10,000.
Kingston Crown Court heard how SOCA surveillance recorded Abdul Hameed Sakhizada in January 2008 saying that in two months he had facilitated 1800 people, claiming “I am Europe’s agent, I am the smuggler of Europe.”
SOCA worked with international law enforcement agencies to investigate the gang, which smuggled its victims through Afghanistan, into Iran and Turkey,then to the Greek islands, and into other European countries including the UK.
Seventeen pizza outlets were raided in January 2008 by SOCA, Kent Police,Northamptonshire Police, Thames Valley Police, Hampshire Police, and UKBA. The gang members were arrested and charged with conspiracy to facilitate the illegal immigration of persons into the EU and the UK, and with conspiracy to launder the criminal proceeds of crime. The victims found were dealt with by the UKBA. Subsequent raids uncovered false birth certificates and driving licences.
Sakhizada pleaded guilty at the start of the trial on 16 March. His role was to coordinate the crossing into Europe from Turkey to Greece – a service he also provided for other international gangs. Independent agents based in each of the other transit countries would manage the different stages of the journey.
The main organiser of the UK trade, Abdul Wakil Niazi, who was involved in the management and running of the pizza outlets, along with Sakhizada’s brother, Ahmed Shah Sakhizada, was found guilty on 21 May. They were sentenced to 12 years and 7 years respectively.
His Honour Justice Welchman called the people smuggling operation “a very serious and well organised enterprise, a complex scheme involving a high degree of planning”.
SOCA’s Director of Enforcement Trevor Pearce said:
“People smuggling is a serious crime which exploits vulnerable people for profit and causes harm to individuals, communities and the UK as a whole. This was a highly sophisticated and well organised criminal enterprise which was prepared to extort money from its victims and challenge the UK’s immigration regime. The message today is clear – the UK is not a soft touch for people smugglers. SOCA’s global connections mean we will find you and we will stop you.”
UK Border Agency Regional Director Tony Smith said:
“We are determined to tackle those who commit organised immigration crime and bring the perpetrators to justice. This was a major international conspiracy to facilitate the entry of illegal immigrants into the UK. “Those behind it showed total disregard for the law, and their motives were purely financial. We will continue to work shoulder-to-shoulder with SOCA, the police and other enforcement partners to stamp out any abuses of the system,and remove those who have no right to be in the UK.”
Janet Boston, reviewing lawyer for the Crown Prosecution Service Organised Crime Division, said:
“This was a profitable, sophisticated operation which was run in a highly organised, business-like manner by men who took advantage of those who willingly left their homeland and families to seek a better life. Inevitably these illegal immigrants were in debt to those who helped them gain entry to the UK and were put to work fast food outlets where the money they earned was taken to pay their debts. Any money the organisers made was channelled back into the people smuggling organisation – enabling the whole circle to begin again. “The defendants all had various positions in the “business”.
Abdul Hameed Sakhizada and Abdul Wakil Niazi were the main organisers while the prosecution case was that others fulfilled the roles of money collectors, book keepers, provided false documents and transferred the money overseas. This was a major people smuggling enterprise and thanks to the hard work of all the agencies involved and the prosecution team in presenting the case, it has now been dismantled. We will now be looking at making applications under the Proceeds of Crime Act for money made by the organisation and for Serious Crime Prevention Orders which will restrict the defendants’ ability to engage in this activity in the future.”
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3 June 2009 36 million spliffs incinerated as international crime gang is convicted
Posted by: BTC in General News & Cases, SOCA - Latest News on June 3rd, 2009
Over 12.5 tonnes of cannabis resin – enough to produce 36 million spliffs – has been incinerated after an investigation by the Serious Organised Crime Agency.
The drugs seizure, from the tug boat ‘Abbira’ which had docked at Southampton, represents one of the largest seizures of cannabis resin in the UK. It was destroyed in a specialist incinerator and needed 6 separate burnings to cope with the volume.
10 men were convicted at Winchester Crown Court today for their part in the criminal plot.
In a coordinated operation led by SOCA and involving Leicestershire Police, HMRC andUKBA, 12 men were arrested on the 09th April 2008, at the same time as a search of the Abbira began. Over a number of days, 419 bales of cannabis weighing 12.57 tonnes in total were removed from the fresh water, ballast and foam tanks of the tug.
The prosecution showed that an Israeli organised crime group employed an Eastern European crew to transport the drugs to the UK for delivery to a Leicester based criminal gang. Significant national and international cooperation was needed to target the various groups, and resulted in a lengthy trial with multiple translations and complex argument to prove the importation offence.
Andy Sellers, Deputy Director of SOCA, said:
“This operation was a massive success for international and national law enforcement cooperation. The quantity of drugs seized would have resulted in upwards of three and a half million street deals and would have funded a wide range of other criminal activity. “Taking out both ends of the criminal operation means that not only have we disrupted a supply route into the UK, but also a distribution network that would most likely have stretched right across the UK.”
Joanne Jakymec, Senior Lawyer, Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office said:
“This conviction represents 14 months of dedicated team work between several departments overcoming multiple language barriers. The defendants included nationals from the UK, Israel, Serbia and Ukraine, and as a result international assistance was sought from 10 different countries. The RCPO prosecution team presented over 5000 pages of evidence in support of their case, including material from Israel, USA and Holland.’
Commander Chris Pratt of HM Revenue & Customs /UK Border Agency said:
“The cutter crew and rummage teams used breathing apparatus equipment to remove the drugs from the Abbira’s water and ballast tanks. It took our officers nearly five days to recover and offload the 419 bales from these confined chambers. This was a huge amount of cannabis resin to discover on one vessel and an excellent result for all the organisations involved.”
Detective Chief Inspector David Sandall, who led the Leicestershire side of the investigation, said:
“This case demonstrates how different agencies can successfully work together to disable the international drugs trade. “Drugs are an international concern and to fight multi-national criminality you have to think, act and work outside the county boundaries. There’s no doubt in my mind that this drugs haul was bound for the streets of Britain, some of which would inevitably have ended up in Leicester. By working with SOCA, the UKBA, HMRC and authorities in Israel we have targeted the problem at the source.
“There’s £36m of cannabis that will never reach the street dealers and there are 10 men in prison for their part in this crime. Everyone who worked on this case can feel proud of their achievements today and the part they played in a much bigger picture, targeting international drugs criminality, while at the same time disrupting local drugs supply on the UK’s streets.”
The 10 men will be sentenced on Thursday 04 June 2009 at Winchester Crown Court.
Details of the verdicts:
Moshe KEDAR d.o.b 12/07/1927 (Israel) Guilty 29/052009
Yehezkel SREBRO d.o.b 12/11/1951 (Israel) Pleaded 29/09/08
Mordechai HERSH d.o.b 25/11/1941 (Israel) Guilty 29/05/2009
Mohinder Singh RAI d.o.b 22/02/1964 (UK National) Pleaded 29/09/08
Baljinder Singh RAI d.o.b 18/10/1967 (UK National) Pleaded 29/09/08
Anjum NAZIR d.o.b 01/02/1970 (UK National) Pleaded 17/02/09
Dragan STANKOVIC d.o.b 17/12/1954 (Serbian) Guilty 29/05/2009
Goram OTOVIC d.o.b 28/04/1955 (Serbian) Guilty 29/05/2009
Dusan MILEUSNIC d.o.b 07/10/1959 (Serbian) Guilty 02/06/2009
Negovan JOVANOVIC d.o.b 07/09/1950 (Serbian) Guilty 02/06/2009
Yaroslav KSENOVETS d.o.b 04/09/1973 (Ukraine) Acquitted 02/06/09
Sergiy KHODOS d.o.b 08/02/1983 (Ukraine) Acquitted 02/06/09
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