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Would mob help terrorists? 'Mafia will help whoever can pay'
October 2, 2006
BY PAT MILTON
WASHINGTON -- The FBI's top counterterrorism official harbors lots of concerns: weapons of mass destruction, undetected homegrown terrorists and the possibility that old-fashioned mobsters will team up with al-Qaida for the right price.
Though there is no direct evidence yet of organized crime collaborating with terrorists, the first hints of a connection surfaced in a recent FBI operation.
Agents stopped a man with alleged mob ties from selling missiles to an informant posing as a terrorist middleman.
That case and other factors are heightening concerns about a real-life episode of the Sopranos teaming with Osama bin Laden's followers.
''We are continuing to look for a nexus,'' said Joseph Billy Jr., the FBI's top counterterrorism official. ''We are looking at this very aggressively.''
Money is money
Pat D'Amuro, a retired senior FBI official, said a mob boss once acknowledged that the mob would help terrorists.
''I am aware of a high-level Mafia figure, who was cooperating with authorities, being asked if the Mafia would assist terrorists in smuggling people into Europe through Italy,'' D'Amuro said. ''He said, 'The Mafia will help whoever can pay.'''
Organized crime syndicates could facilitate money transfers, human smuggling, identification fraud or explosives and weapons acquisitions, officials said.
Take your pick
The options are many for terrorist groups.
There are the five reputed La Cosa Nostra families in New York, Russian criminal enterprises from Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, and the emerging Asian crime syndicates that operate in many Islamic countries with al-Qaida offshoots.
AP
October 2, 2006
BY PAT MILTON
WASHINGTON -- The FBI's top counterterrorism official harbors lots of concerns: weapons of mass destruction, undetected homegrown terrorists and the possibility that old-fashioned mobsters will team up with al-Qaida for the right price.
Though there is no direct evidence yet of organized crime collaborating with terrorists, the first hints of a connection surfaced in a recent FBI operation.
Agents stopped a man with alleged mob ties from selling missiles to an informant posing as a terrorist middleman.
That case and other factors are heightening concerns about a real-life episode of the Sopranos teaming with Osama bin Laden's followers.
''We are continuing to look for a nexus,'' said Joseph Billy Jr., the FBI's top counterterrorism official. ''We are looking at this very aggressively.''
Money is money
Pat D'Amuro, a retired senior FBI official, said a mob boss once acknowledged that the mob would help terrorists.
''I am aware of a high-level Mafia figure, who was cooperating with authorities, being asked if the Mafia would assist terrorists in smuggling people into Europe through Italy,'' D'Amuro said. ''He said, 'The Mafia will help whoever can pay.'''
Organized crime syndicates could facilitate money transfers, human smuggling, identification fraud or explosives and weapons acquisitions, officials said.
Take your pick
The options are many for terrorist groups.
There are the five reputed La Cosa Nostra families in New York, Russian criminal enterprises from Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, and the emerging Asian crime syndicates that operate in many Islamic countries with al-Qaida offshoots.
AP
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