Saturday, March 21, 2015

Wealthiest Jihadis: Terror Outfit ISIS's Annual Earnings Doubled On Al-Qaeda With Organ Selling And Smuggling

A new study of the Islamic State's finances has revealed previous that estimates suggesting the terror group earns $2billion every year could be far too low.

ISIS' finance chief Sheikh Abu Saad al-Ansari - who operates from ISIS' Iraqi stronghold Mosul - is understood to have recently approved the terror group's first annual budget  - revealing and estimated spend of $2 billion this year, plus a expected surplus of $250 million.

The budget suggests ISIS' annual income could be as much a quarter of a billion dollars more than experts previously suggested - with the bulk of the terror group's revenue coming from oil sales, organ harvesting, ransom and extortion payments, and the looting and sale of ancient antiquities.


If the revised figure is accurate, it means ISIS' annual income now exceeds that of Al Qaeda - making the terror group lead by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi the wealthiest jihadi organisation in history.

The United States Treasury's Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, David S Cohen, appeared to confirm that ISIS earns far more than previously estimated, according to Middle East Eye, by confirming that the terror group's budget was more than $2 billion.

Despite ISIS' claims to be a devout religious organisation, the majority of their income is believed to come from illegal means - such as the black-market sale of oil, mafia-style extortion threats - and even drug and people smuggling.


According to the Russian Federal Drug Control Service, ISIS has turned the ancient city of Nineveh, adjacent to Turkish borders, is a centre for its heroin trade, MME reports.. 

Experts believe that roughly $1billion of ISIS' income comes from the sale of heroin and that half the heroin on sale in Europe has passed through the terrorists' hands and helped to fill its coffers. 

INNLIVE revealed that human organ traffiking is another way ISIS finances its activities.

Last month the UN's ambassador to Iraq, Mohamed Alhakim, claimed that dozens of bodies with surgical incisions and missing body parts have been found in shallow mass graves near Mosul.


Speaking of ISIS' organ harvesting operations, Mr Alhakim said: 'We have bodies. Come and examine them. It is clear they are missing certain parts.'

He also said a dozen doctors have been 'executed' in Mosul for refusing to participate in organ harvesting.

The shocking news of ISIS trade in human organs was first revealed in a report by al-Monitor news website in December, citing an Iraqi ear, nose and throat doctor named Siruwan al-Mosuli.

He told the site that ISIS commanders hired foreign doctors to run an extensive organ trafficking system from a hospital in Mosul that is already beginning to generate huge profits.

The shocking news of ISIS trade in human organs was first revealed in a report by al-Monitor news website in December, citing an Iraqi ear, nose and throat doctor named Siruwan al-Mosuli.

He told the site that ISIS commanders hired foreign doctors to run an extensive organ trafficking system from a hospital in Mosul that is already beginning to generate huge profits.

Last month it was revealed that militants fighting for ISIS in Syria are making millions of pounds selling ancient statues and mosaics to wealthy Westerners using a complex system of smugglers and middle men.


Looted from ancient buildings in ISIS strongholds, such as the group's de facto capital city Raqqa, the antiquities are up to 10,000-years-old and can exchange hands for more than $1 million each.

The most expensive items are covertly smuggled overseas - usually on the orders of wealthy Europeans - but there is also a lucrative trade in less historically important objects, which often find their way into tourist shops and markets in neighbouring Lebanon and Turkey.

The trade in antiquities is one of ISIS' primary sources of funding, along with oil and ransom payments, and is estimated to fills the terrorists coffers with tens of millions of pounds every year.

The finer points of ISIS trade in antiquities was uncovered in an investigation by the BBC.

It revealed that ISIS militants charge smugglers 20 per cent on the sale of ancient items found or looted in territory under its control. If the smugglers decide not to buy the items, they are promptly smashed to pieces as examples of idolatry, regardless of their historic significance.
ISIS is believed to generate a total of several million pounds a day, with approximately £400,000 of that coming from the sale of oil.

A further £250,00 comes from extortion and protection money paid by companies and individuals operating in areas under its control, while ISIS also makes money from farming, water services and electricity production.


Revenue obtained from ransoms paid by the families or governments of kidnapped individuals in less easy to calculate, but the price for release is usually millions of pounds.

Companies and lorry drivers are forced to pay road and import taxes to use roads in areas under ISIS' control - with lorries charged £500 per journey, plus a further £250 tax for electronic good and £200 for food parcels.

However one expected source of income is the looting of antiques from the many ancient religious sites in areas under its command.

For example, one Iraqi intelligence official claimed that ISIS earned £23 million in early 2014 alone by selling 800 items stolen from the ancient city of Al-Nabk near Damascus. 

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