Roguish Lawyer
05-25-2005, 16:54
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-052505terror_lat,0,7448492.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Terrorists Suspected of Counterfeiting to Raise Funds
By Josh Meyer, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON -- When Los Angeles County sheriff's Lt. John Stedman was booking a local clothing store owner last year on charges of selling counterfeit high-fashion merchandise, his attention was drawn immediately to the large and colorful tattoo on the man's arm.
The tattoo was surrounded by Arabic writing, suggesting it wasn't a gang symbol or the mark of one of the many organized crime syndicates that have helped make counterfeit merchandising a multibillion-dollar industry in the United States, Stedman said today.
It turned out to be the mark of Hezbollah, the Islamic militant organization described by FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III as "the A-team of terrorism" that is more deadly, well-financed and organized than Al Qaeda.
And it was just one of many anecdotal instances in Los Angeles County where alleged Hezbollah operatives have been caught trafficking in counterfeit goods, Stedman and other experts told a congressional committee today.
They said suspected U.S.-based operatives of Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorist groups are raising as much as $30 million a year through the sale of counterfeit merchandise in the United States, and sending much of it back home for possible use in terrorist attacks in the Middle East and perhaps in the United States.
"There are mounting indicators of the involvement of terrorist groups and their supporters" in counterfeiting, said Stedman, who supervises the criminal investigation section of the sheriff's Emergency Operations Bureau. "We have encountered suspects who have shown great affinity for Hezbollah and its leadership."
In his testimony before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Stedman said Los Angeles County authorities were considering his request for a special task force to combat this problem.
While the evidence so far is almost entirely anecdotal, other experts said that the problem extends far beyond Southern California.
Hezbollah, they said, has for years used its global network of cells to raise vast sums of money for its operations, which include terrorist attacks aimed at Israeli interests and a political wing that is gaining mainstream political credibility in and around its home base of Lebanon.
Matthew Levitt, a former FBI counterterrorism analyst, told committee members that the best U.S. intelligence estimates show Hezbollah receiving between $20 million to $30 million a year through illegal activities in the United States.
Terrorists Suspected of Counterfeiting to Raise Funds
By Josh Meyer, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON -- When Los Angeles County sheriff's Lt. John Stedman was booking a local clothing store owner last year on charges of selling counterfeit high-fashion merchandise, his attention was drawn immediately to the large and colorful tattoo on the man's arm.
The tattoo was surrounded by Arabic writing, suggesting it wasn't a gang symbol or the mark of one of the many organized crime syndicates that have helped make counterfeit merchandising a multibillion-dollar industry in the United States, Stedman said today.
It turned out to be the mark of Hezbollah, the Islamic militant organization described by FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III as "the A-team of terrorism" that is more deadly, well-financed and organized than Al Qaeda.
And it was just one of many anecdotal instances in Los Angeles County where alleged Hezbollah operatives have been caught trafficking in counterfeit goods, Stedman and other experts told a congressional committee today.
They said suspected U.S.-based operatives of Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorist groups are raising as much as $30 million a year through the sale of counterfeit merchandise in the United States, and sending much of it back home for possible use in terrorist attacks in the Middle East and perhaps in the United States.
"There are mounting indicators of the involvement of terrorist groups and their supporters" in counterfeiting, said Stedman, who supervises the criminal investigation section of the sheriff's Emergency Operations Bureau. "We have encountered suspects who have shown great affinity for Hezbollah and its leadership."
In his testimony before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Stedman said Los Angeles County authorities were considering his request for a special task force to combat this problem.
While the evidence so far is almost entirely anecdotal, other experts said that the problem extends far beyond Southern California.
Hezbollah, they said, has for years used its global network of cells to raise vast sums of money for its operations, which include terrorist attacks aimed at Israeli interests and a political wing that is gaining mainstream political credibility in and around its home base of Lebanon.
Matthew Levitt, a former FBI counterterrorism analyst, told committee members that the best U.S. intelligence estimates show Hezbollah receiving between $20 million to $30 million a year through illegal activities in the United States.