Question

Do you believe that some criminal groups could also be considered terrorists? Identify specific examples and justify your answer.

Answer 1

• People who commit organized crimes do have connections with terrorist groups and some do work for the terrosrist. Terrorist groups and organized crime networks are increasingly working together, strengthening their ability to inflict harm on law-abiding societies with conventional weapons today, and possibly with nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction in the future.
• In fact, in some cases terrorists and criminals appear to be deeply intertwined in ways that go well beyond fleeting alliances of convenience. The Dubai-based Indian criminal Aftab Ansari is believed to have used ransom money he earned from kidnappings to help fund the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. And some people, like the Pakistan-based crime boss Dawood Ibrahim, even go on to pursue dual careers as both criminal and terrorist leaders.
• The connections between the two networks exist on a variety of levels - from purely tactical to strategic - including logistical support in weapons procurement, shared routes, training and some ideological overlap. As a result, in some areas it may be impossible to destroy the logistical network supporting terrorist groups without striking major blows at supporting criminal networks.
• At the tactical level, terrorist groups rely on organized crime networks to provide them with the necessary weaponry and munitions to undertake massive attacks and insurgencies. The routes that have been carefully constructed by criminal networks can also be extremely useful for transporting goods on behalf of terrorist groups.
• For their part, criminal gangs can turn to terrorist groups to provide needed training in the use of guns and explosives, and also to provide safe passage through terrorist-controlled territory for a price.
• The linkages between the criminal and terror groups allow terror networks to expand and undertake large attacks internationally by leveraging criminal sources, money and transit routes.