Reckless exploitation of the environment has taken over from drug trafficking as the top source of income for organized crime syndicates and armed groups, Interpol said in a report on Wednesday.
Ivory trafficking, gold mining, illegal “taxes” on natural resources and other environmental crimes make up 38 percent of the funding of conflict and armed groups, according to the World Atlas of Illicit Flows report.
While groups like the Islamic State grab the headlines, they account for just 4 percent of the US$31.5 billion generated in conflict zones worldwide each year, with the rest going to organized crime groups, Interpol said.
The report, compiled with the Norwegian Center for Global Analysis (RHIPTO) and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, is billed as the first global overview of trafficking routes used by such groups.
It maps out about 1,000 routes used for the trafficking of everything from oil, gold and diamonds to drugs, people and ivory.
“Organized crime is increasingly undermining peace, security and development,” Global Initiative director Mark Shaw said.
GLOBAL PHENOMENON
“It has become a global phenomenon, represented in a confluence of conflicts from Africa to the Middle East and the Americas,” he said.
Illegal mining makes up about 17 percent of the funding of armed groups, with gold in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and coltan (used in cellphones) in Latin America among the minerals targeted.
Organized crime groups are also involved in the lucrative trade of poached African elephant ivory as well as rhino horns sold to Asia for use in traditional medicine, though the report stressed the US$165 million of such sales made up a tiny proportion of their total earnings.
Drug trafficking remains the second-biggest source of funding, after “environmental crimes,” accounting for 28 percent of the total, the report said.
Illegal taxing of civilians, as well as looting and extortion, account for another 26 percent. In contrast, donations and kidnappings for ransom only made up 3 percent each.
RHIPTO director Christian Nellemann said governments needed to start seeing the fight against organized crime as a key factor that could help end conflicts.
“In many instances, criminal groups, some closely connected to political elites, may have a vested interest in renewed and continued armed struggle to ensure their dominance over natural resources and trade routes,” he said.
‘TAX’ COLLECTION
The Interpol report also sheds light on how militant groups operate “tax collection” operations to extract money from civilian populations.
It estimated that in the middle of last year, the Islamic State group was bringing in about US$10 million in taxes from the territory it occupied across Iraq and Syria.
“Today, with dramatic losses of territory, Islamic State probably has at their disposal no more than a quarter of this,” the report said, while warning the group likely has “considerable reserves.”
The Taliban in Afghanistan earned between US$75 million and US$95 million last year taxing heroin produced from the country’s poppy fields, as well as land and agricultural output, it said.
In Somalia, al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab militants make about US$10 million a year through taxing everything from livestock to drinking water, or extorting “protection money” from companies.
PEOPLE SMUGGLING
People trafficking is also a hugely lucrative source of funding for armed and criminal groups — the fourth-largest criminal enterprise worldwide with an estimated worth of US$157 billion, the report said.
The smuggling of migrants across the Sahara desert nets armed groups up to US$765 million a year, it estimated.
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