One of the biggest challenges individual states and global community face when combatting terrorism is, attempting to stunt the monetary channels flowing into terrorist organisations allowing them to direct and act on heinous crimes of violence against civilians of all nation states. All terror attacks require money in order to cause enough damage and chaos efficiently with the result being to create as much fear as possible. After the September 11 attacks, Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) regimes were responsible for large investments into making it harder for foreign investors to send money to terrorist groups. It was proven that 19 of the hijackers had recently opened bank accounts and had received several transfers from international
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In Nigeria, Boko Haram uses kidnappings, bank robberies and the hijacking of cars, and similarly in Iraq, ISIS and Al-Qaeda turn to ransom from kidnappings, human trafficking and illicit drug trade to make their millions (Barrett, 2012). The trouble with combating the funding of terrorism appears when focusing on kidnappings, in particular, as a lucrative way to allow terror groups to continue recruitment and further attacks on society. Britain, like America, has a policy which states that demands from terror groups will not be met and that money will not be exchanged for the release of kidnapped citizens. With such policies, countries must decide to either save one life, or to think long-term and refuse to crumble under the pressure of terrorists (Dutton, 2016). Reports have shown that between 2008 and 2015, more than US$125 million was paid to Al-Qaeda and its sympathisers by European countries, and although they managed to save the victims, they could be accused of furthering the damage Al-Qaeda is able to inflict on more of the world’s population (Kazmir, …show more content…
Due to the high value of trafficking and distributing drugs and since the volume to value ratio is so low, this illegal money-making business is appealing to members of terrorist groups. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC) were able to acquire weaponry and communication technology through simple dealings in the drug trafficking arena. Brothers, Ali Farhat and Hassan Farhat, members of terrorist group Hezbollah, were accused of carrying heroin, cocaine and marijuana as part of the groups trafficking activities. The Taliban actively encourages growing of the opium poppy and offer protection for the farmers who grow the crop, this allows them to be included in every element of the drug dealing process, from production to distribution. Australia has also been linked to the money laundering activities, with 40 separate drug trafficking operations delivering their proceeds to Shi’a Islamist group based in Lebanon, Hezbollah (Clarke,
In Nigeria, Boko Haram uses kidnappings, bank robberies and the hijacking of cars, and similarly in Iraq, ISIS and Al-Qaeda turn to ransom from kidnappings, human trafficking and illicit drug trade to make their millions (Barrett, 2012). The trouble with combating the funding of terrorism appears when focusing on kidnappings, in particular, as a lucrative way to allow terror groups to continue recruitment and further attacks on society. Britain, like America, has a policy which states that demands from terror groups will not be met and that money will not be exchanged for the release of kidnapped citizens. With such policies, countries must decide to either save one life, or to think long-term and refuse to crumble under the pressure of terrorists (Dutton, 2016). Reports have shown that between 2008 and 2015, more than US$125 million was paid to Al-Qaeda and its sympathisers by European countries, and although they managed to save the victims, they could be accused of furthering the damage Al-Qaeda is able to inflict on more of the world’s population (Kazmir, …show more content…
Due to the high value of trafficking and distributing drugs and since the volume to value ratio is so low, this illegal money-making business is appealing to members of terrorist groups. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC) were able to acquire weaponry and communication technology through simple dealings in the drug trafficking arena. Brothers, Ali Farhat and Hassan Farhat, members of terrorist group Hezbollah, were accused of carrying heroin, cocaine and marijuana as part of the groups trafficking activities. The Taliban actively encourages growing of the opium poppy and offer protection for the farmers who grow the crop, this allows them to be included in every element of the drug dealing process, from production to distribution. Australia has also been linked to the money laundering activities, with 40 separate drug trafficking operations delivering their proceeds to Shi’a Islamist group based in Lebanon, Hezbollah (Clarke,