Terrorism and drugs: The achievement of bloody goals through dirty tools

Terrorist groups work to achieve their goals, regardless of the price they can pay. These groups are even ready to violate the rules of the religion they claim to follow to achieve these goals.

Terrorist groups also need a lot of money to bankroll their projects and activities. This is why most of the groups get involved in the drug trade to get this money. The trade brings a lot of money to terrorists.

Mohamed Fathi Eid discusses this issue in his book, "Terrorism and Drugs". The book was published by the Studies and Research Center at the University of Naif for Security Sciences, in Saudi Arabia. The book sheds light on links between the drug trade and terrorism.

The first chapter of the book focuses on major developments in all countries during the 20th century. These developments contributed to the emergence of globalization. Globalization made the world a small global village. This, the author of the book says, led to the breakdown of intellectual, cultural and social boundaries between different cultures, ideas and ideologies.

The rise of the Internet and social networking sites contributed to the further collapse of borders and the spread of unfamiliar ideas among the public

Terrorist groups exploited these new techniques to communicate among themselves, attract new members and exchange information.

This opened the door for what came later to be known as "organized crime". The United Nations considered this form of crime as the most serious in the present century.

"Organized crime" is defined as the crime committed by a group of professional criminals in accordance with a clearly defined, complex and secret administrative division, aimed at killing.

In the second chapter, the author discusses the process of illegal drug trafficking, the historical development of its use, and the process of trafficking. According to the 2004 United Nations Office on the Status of Narcotic Drugs, entitled "International cooperation against the world drug problem" around 3% of the population of the world, around 185 million people, takes drugs. 

The author points out that narcotic drugs have been illicitly trafficked through the process of agricultural and conversion production. The cultivation process is being carried out in remote mountainous areas, on which terrorist groups depend, given the nature of their geographical areas.

In the third chapter, the author highlights the definition of terrorism and the global trends of terrorist groups, the international bodies and the global rules governing this issue. He says the failure of international organizations to agree on a specific definition of terrorism makes confronting these organizations a complex process. 

The absence of a clear definition of innocent civilians, the limits of the use of force, the nature of armed conflicts of a non-international nature and the regulation of the use of veto power contributes to the inadequacy of the definition of terrorism and the emergence of major obstacles to the international confrontation of terrorist organizations, the author says.

He then goes on to highlight Arab conventions on terrorism, such as the Arab Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism, issued in April 1998, which states in article no. 1 that terrorism is every act of violence or threat, whatever its motive or purpose, aimed at terrorizing or intimidating people by harming them, endangering their lives, freedom or security, harming, possessing or seizing a public or private property, or endangering a national resource.

In the fourth chapter, which is entitled "Narcotics and the Financing of Terrorist Acts," the author notes that money-laundering carried out by these groups is due in large part to the fact that the world has become a small village, making illegal crimes that transcend borders become more widespread and more dominant. .

The international community has also clearly linked the illicit trafficking of drugs across borders since the mid-1980s with the discovery of extremist groups that resorted to drugs, especially in Afghanistan, as a source of funding for their illicit activities.

He says terrorist groups may engage in illegal drug trafficking, either personally, or by protecting the trade process that passes through the areas controlled by them, in return for providing cash to help finance their terrorist activities. 

At the end of his book, Eid calls on the UN to develop a comprehensive definition of terrorism.