CRS: Terrorists increasingly rely on crime

WASHINGTON, May 29 (UPI) -- Terrorists are increasingly relying on criminal activity to finance their operations, a new study from Congressional Research Service says.

State-sponsorship is declining and terrorists groups are increasingly decentralized and more amateur, CRS finds, which leads the cells to crime.

"It appears that small semiautonomous terrorist cells in many countries have discovered they are capable of conducting violently disruptive activities without extensive financial and/or logistical support and as such numerous cells appear to have turned to precursor criminal activities to do just that," states the report, posted by the Federation of American Scientists, a think tank and advocacy group in Washington.

The terrorists who carried out the London bus bombings did so for less than $10,000.

The most common method of raising funds is the creation of front organizations to raise and launder money, sometimes as businesses, charities and other non-governmental organizations.

Counterfeiting money is another method of raising funds within the United States. Increasingly, terrorist groups are selling counterfeited goods. A North Carolina group linked to Hezbollah was indicted in 2006 for buying tax-free cigarettes and reselling them in high-cigarette tax states like New York. They also sold counterfeit Viagra and stolen toilet paper and baby formula.

Narcotics -- growing, formulating, smuggling and selling -- are also believed to be a terrorist revenue stream.

Violent crimes like armed robbery and small-scale credit card, food stamps and benefits fraud are also reportedly linked to terrorist financing streams.

There is a paucity of data to determine whether and to what extent criminal activity in the United States finances terrorist activities.

One study, the American Terrorism Study by researchers at the University of Arkansas, looked at 447 people indicted by the FBI as terrorists between 1978 and 1999. The study found that one-third of the "various activities terrorists engage in to facilitate attacks were criminal."