16 October 2003
U.S. Designates Indian Crime Lord as Al Qaida-linked Terrorist
U.S. says Dawood Ibrahim shares smuggling routes with Al Qaida
The U.S. Treasury Department says it has designated Dawood Ibrahim, an Indian crime lord for the past two decades, as a global terrorist with links to Al Qaida, and will request that the United Nations list him as well.
The designation freezes any assets belonging to Ibrahim within the United States and prohibits transactions with U.S. nationals, the Treasury Department said.
Following are a Treasury Department news release and fact sheet about the designation of Ibrahim:
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U.S. DESIGNATES DAWOOD IBRAHIM AS TERRORIST SUPPORTER
This Department of Treasury press release may be viewed at: http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/js909.htm
Indian Crime Lord has Assisted Al Qaida and Supported Other Terrorists in India
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Treasury Department today announced that it is designating Dawood Ibrahim as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224 and will be requesting that the United Nations list him as well. Today's designation freezes any assets belonging to Ibrahim within the U.S. and prohibits transactions with U.S. nationals. The UN listing will require that all UN Member States take similar actions.
"This designation signals our commitment to identifying and attacking the financial ties between the criminal underworld and terrorism," stated Juan Zarate, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes. "We are calling on the international community to stop the flow of dirty money that kills. For the Ibrahim syndicate, the business of terrorism forms part of their larger criminal enterprise, which must be dismantled."
Dawood Ibrahim, an Indian crime lord, has found common cause with Al Qaida, sharing his smuggling routes with the terror syndicate and funding attacks by Islamic extremists aimed at destabilizing the Indian government. He is wanted in India for the 1993 Bombay Exchange bombings and is known to have financed the activities of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (Army of the Righteous), a group designated by the United States in October 2001 and banned by the Pakistani Government -- who also froze their assets -- in January 2002.
With today's designation, the U.S. and our international partners have designated 322 individuals and organizations as terrorists and terrorist supporters and have frozen over $136.8 million in terrorist assets.
FACT SHEET
DAWOOD IBRAHIM
a.k.a. Dawood Ebrahim
a.k.a. Sheikh Dawood Hassan
Dawood Ibrahim ("IBRAHIM"), the son of a police constable, has reigned as one of the pre-eminent criminals in the Indian underworld for most of the past two decades.
IBRAHIM's syndicate is involved in large-scale shipments of narcotics in the U.K. and Western Europe. The syndicate's smuggling routes from South Asia, the Middle East and Africa are shared with Usama bin Laden and his terrorist network. Successful routes established over recent years by IBRAHIM's syndicate have been subsequently utilized by bin Laden. A financial arrangement was reportedly brokered to facilitate the latter's usage of these routes. In the late 1990's, IBRAHIM traveled in Afghanistan under the protection of the Taliban. IBRAHIM's syndicate has consistently aimed to destabilize the Indian government through inciting riots, acts of terrorism, and civil disobedience. He is currently wanted by India for the March 12, 1993 Bombay Exchange bombings, which killed hundreds of Indians and injured over a thousand more. Information, from as recent as Fall 2002, indicates that IBRAHIM has financially supported Islamic militant groups working against India, such as Lashkar-e-Tayyiba(LeT).
For example, this information indicates that IBRAHIM has been helping finance increasing attacks in Gujarat by LeT. Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (Army of the Righteous) is the armed wing of Markaz-ud-Dawa-wal-Irsha (MDI) -- a Sunni anti-US missionary organization formed in 1989. The United States added LeT to the list of designated terrorists in October 2001. The group was banned by the Pakistani government, and its assets frozen, in January 2002.
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(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
This page printed from: http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2003&m=October&x=20031016184110atarukp0.2059137&t=usinfo/wf-latest.html
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