Pubdate: Wed, 31 Jul 2002
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2002 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author: Los Angeles Times

NARCOTICS, TERRORISM CONNECTED, U.S. FINDS

WASHINGTON -- The United States has determined that about one-third of 
foreign terrorist organizations are trafficking in narcotics on a large 
scale, providing authorities with "shocking" insight into how two of the 
nation's most serious threats are connected, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft said 
Tuesday.

"Law enforcement has been aware for some time of significant linkages 
between terrorism and drug trafficking. But we have not had the tools to 
quantify the drugs-terrorism nexus until now," Ashcroft said in a speech 
before the annual conference of the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement 
Task Force.

Earlier this year, Ashcroft said, he asked federal law enforcement agencies 
to draw up a list that quantifies all the major narcotics trafficking 
groups who are responsible for the U.S. drug supply.

"Following extraordinary collaboration and information-sharing between 
agencies, this list has been developed--and what it reveals is shocking," 
the attorney general stated. "Nearly one-third of the organizations on the 
State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations appear also on 
our list of targeted U.S. drug suppliers."

Cross-matching the lists is providing authorities with substantial leads in 
their global war on terrorism, Ashcroft noted, as well as helping to combat 
the growing problem of narco-traffickers responsible for selling cocaine, 
heroin and other drugs worldwide.

Ashcroft's remarks came as U.S. authorities, working with state and local 
officials and their counterparts in Mexico, announced they had arrested 
more than 2,120 fugitives along the Southwest border in recent months.

Ashcroft did not elaborate on which terrorist groups are suspected of being 
involved in drug trafficking.

Justice Department officials would not comment on what organizations are on 
the drug trafficking list, except to say that Al Qaeda was one of them.

"They are definitely using the drug trade to finance their operations, but 
it is not the major source of funding," one Justice Department official 
said of Al Qaeda, which U.S. officials have said was responsible for the 
Sept. 11 attacks. "They get more money from donations and trading in gold 
and other precious metals. It's a serious problem, but it's hard to say 
this is where we should be putting all our resources."

Specifically, the Justice Department official said, Al Qaeda and the 
Taliban regime that protected it made millions of dollars from the heroin 
trade in Afghanistan.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth