The funds of ISIS, al-Qaida and the al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, would probably be used by the groups to buy weapons and become attackers, according to Justice officials.
“Two million dollars is a lot of equipment they can buy, a lot of weapons, a lot of training that they can afford, a lot of cards to fly people all over the world,” said John Demers, the assistant attorney-at-law. general who is responsible for the national security department of the justice department. “This will make a big difference in their operation.”
The seizure, which also includes 300 cryptocurrency accounts, four websites, and four Facebook pages, underscores how terrorist groups have modernized their fundraising tactics in recent years, and how law enforcement has adapted, to they continue to target criminals in their wallets.
Officials said the terrorist groups had both issued transparent public messages asking for the digital funds, as well as designed schemes to receive ignorant donors, including a website that was allegedly set up by ISIS in February, and was intended to provide personal protection equipment. selling to protect against the spread of coronavirus.
At a news conference on Thursday, law enforcement officials described the terrorist groups as “generous” and opportunistic fundraisers who regularly use new technologies for money transfer.
“We have seen this for years in the drug space, where narcotics terrorists have used cryptocurrency in a very secret way, trying to evade law enforcement, and we see that it was also used – which should not be surprising – in ‘ the world of counterterrorism, “said Michael Sherwin, the acting U.S. attorney in Washington, DC.
A number of criminal investigations into individuals involved in fundraising, including probes from U.S. citizens who have made donations, remain ongoing, senior officials said.
National security experts have warned in recent years that terrorist groups are likely to switch to cryptocurrency to fund their activities, although it is not clear how widespread and important the practice is as a source of funding for the groups.
A 2019 study by the RAND Corporation, a global policy thinker, concluded that cryptocurrencies “generally do not properly match the full features required and are desirable for the terrorist groups investigated, but may be used for selected financial activities. . “
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