Police: Toronto group funded Tamil rebels

TORONTO, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- A Royal Canadian Mounted Police report alleges a Toronto fundraising group wired more than $3 million for weapons to Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka.

The RCMP anti-terror unit raided the Toronto and Montreal offices of the World Tamil Movement in 2006, and an 83-page summary of the investigation seen by the National Post claimed the group "has developed an elaborate machinelike entity that moves throughout the Greater Toronto Area collecting funds with extreme proficiency."

The RCMP's financial report claims the WTM has a complex network made up of 20 Canadian bank accounts in five Canadian banks that were used to wire funds to Britain, Malaysia, Singapore, and Tamil Tigers-controlled areas of Sri Lanka.

The investigation began in 2002, and last June 16 Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day announced the group had been added to Canada's list of terrorist groups, the report said.

The Tamil group has repeatedly denied its fundraising is for the militants, and vowed to legally challenge the terrorist designation by the government, the Post said.