NEW YORK, Dec 19, (Agencies): Three alleged al-Qaeda members were brought to New York Friday to face charges of trying to set up a drug trafficking ring in Africa to help finance terror operations, US officials said.
“Today’s allegations reflect the emergence of a worrisome alliance between al-Qaeda and transnational narcotics traffickers,” US Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.
“As terrorists diversify into drugs, however, they provide us with more opportunities to incapacitate them and cut off the funding for future acts of terror.”
The men, arrested Wednesday in Ghana, are accused of contacting undercover informants in that country who were posing as members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Latin America’s longest-standing guerilla outfit.
The men said al-Qaeda could provide protection for the transportation of hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from West Africa through North Africa and ultimately into Spain.
It is the first time associates of al-Qaeda have been charged with “narco-terrorism offenses,” the Justice Department said in a press release.

“These narco-terrorists do not respect borders and do not care who they harm with their drug trafficking conspiracies,” said Drug Enforcement Administration Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart.
“Working with our narcotics law enforcement partners in Ghana and across the globe, DEA is making unprecedented progress in dismantling illicit drug networks in western Africa and around the world, and putting the criminals who operate them behind bars, where they belong.”
Ourmar Issa, Harouna Toure and Idriss Abelrahman were each charged with one count of narco-terrorism conspiracy, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years and a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Another count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.
The Justice Department said the three men intended to support al-Qaeda, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb (AQIM), and FARC — all designated terrorist organizations by the United States.
The members also allegedly discussed the possibility of kidnapping foreign nationals to “raise money for the cause.”

Kidnapping by extremist militia groups for financial gain has risen sharply in recent years, becoming a lucrative business for AQIM, al-Qaeda’s North African branch.
Last September, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika warned the United Nations General Assembly that “ransoms are now the principal source of finance for terrorism.”
Anti-drug investigators also believe that the recent discovery of a burnt-out Boeing airliner in the Malian desert, which the United Nations said was used to transport cocaine from Venezuela, demonstrated a sure link between organized crime gangs and Islamist militants.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb is an Algeria-based group that joined Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network in 2006 and conducts dozens of bombings or ambushes each month.
The group’s origins trace back to militants that fought the Algerian government. In its new form, the group has spread beyond that country’s porous borders, sowing violence in the rest of northwestern Africa through kidnappings, human trafficking, and other crimes.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has for several years stepped up efforts to control the drug trade through North Africa, Western and local intelligence officials say.
The importance of this trade has steeply risen in recent years as illegal goods have shifted from fake cigarettes or hashish to cocaine, after South American cartels started flying their drugs directly to weak nations in the Gulf of Guinea.
The al-Qaeda North African offshoot, known by its acronym AQIM, also controls illegal cross-border networks used for human trafficking, with migrants often paying their passage to Europe as “mules” by carrying cocaine.
Adam Raisman, a senior analyst at the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors terror networks, said al-Qaeda is increasingly seeking financial support. “The group is trying every means at its disposal to fill its coffers,” he said.