Al-Qaida funded by drugs trade, says US official

Osama bin Laden is raising millions of pounds through the international drugs trade to fund his al Qaida terror network, US officials said today.

Many of the drugs are believed to be coming from his former sanctuary, Afghanistan, and sold in return for weapons or cash.

Al-Qaida is also charging what amounts to a “tax” on smuggled drug shipments as they leave Afghanistan bound for the west, an unnamed official said.

There were also unconfirmed suggestions that the terror group has used drug money to buy radioactive material for a so-called “dirty bomb”.

The claims come after a seizure earlier this month of three boats carrying heroin and hashish.

The boats, stopped by the US Navy in the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea, were said to be piloted by al-Qaida operatives.

A US defence official said bin Laden tolerated the smuggling of drugs, which is against the teachings of Islam, because “it’s being used to kill Westerners”.

“He has allies and associates who are not members per se, but who move products for him and take drugs and buy arms and give the arms to al Qaida,” the official told the Washington Times.

While there were no exact figures, the amounts raised were believed to run into tens of millions of pounds.

The official said the Unites States’ concentration on the war on terror and the occupation of Iraq was diverting resources away from fighting the drugs war.

Indeed, the White House said last month that poppy cultivation in Afghanistan doubled between 2002 and 2003 to a level 36 times higher than in the last year of rule by the now-toppled Taliban.

Washington is now believed to be forming the opinion that by targeting drugs - and cutting off funds to al-Qaida – it could strike a major blow against the network.

“If you’re going to get terrorism under control, we’ve got to stop their livelihood, which is money,” said the defence official.

Poppies from the fields of Afghanistan are converted into opium and heroin, attracting huge sums of money as they move through Pakistan to the west.

In some cases al-Qaida takes shipments as payments and exchanges them for arms, according to the source.

Other times, al-Qaida operatives levy a “tax” on shipments as they pass borders or areas under the terror network’s influence, in Iran, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and other countries.