Pubdate: Sat, 20 Dec 2003
Source: St. Petersburg Times (FL)
Copyright: 2003 St. Petersburg Times
Contact:  http://www.sptimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/419

NAVY SEIZES BOAT LOADED WITH HASHISH

WASHINGTON - The Navy has seized a boat carrying nearly 2 tons of hashish 
in the Persian Gulf, U.S. officials said Friday, in what could be some of 
the first hard evidence of al-Qaida links to drug smuggling.

The guided missile destroyer USS Decatur intercepted the 40-foot boat on 
Monday. Aboard were a dozen men, three of them believed to have al- Qaida 
connections, and 3,780 pounds of hashish, the Navy said Friday.

"This is the first empirical evidence I've seen that conclusively links 
al-Qaida with the drug trade," said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at 
RAND, a think tank that often does work for the Pentagon.

The Decatur seized the boat, a wooden vessel called a dhow, near the Strait 
of Hormuz, a narrow part of the Persian Gulf where it opens into the 
Arabian Sea. The area is a known smuggling route for al-Qaida, the Navy said.

The drugs are worth between $8-million and $10-million, the Navy said.

Military officials would not say Friday why they believed the boat, its 
cargo and some of its crew were linked to Osama bin Laden's terrorist 
network. The boat remained under the Decatur's control and it had not been 
determined what to do with the men on board, the Navy said.

Terrorism experts and government officials long have said they believe that 
al-Qaida makes money through criminal enterprises including the drug trade.

Hoffman said Monday's seizure was the first indication al-Qaida was 
smuggling hashish, a drug made from the resin of marijuana plants that has 
a long history in the Middle East.

Smuggling drugs is attractive to al-Qaida because of the huge profit 
margins involved, said Jimmy Gurule, a former Treasury Department official 
involved in tracking terrorist financing.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart