13 March 2002

State Department Officials Point to Drugs-Terrorism Ties in the Americas

Washington -- Two senior State Department officials have documented the symbiotic relationship that exists between drug trafficking organizations and terrorist groups in Latin America and other regions of the world.

In joint testimony submitted March 13, Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Rand Beers and Ambassador-at-Large for Counterterrorism Francis Taylor detailed the mutually beneficial results that accrue to terrorists and traffickers who cooperate with each other. The two officials appeared before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism, and Government Information.

"Drug traffickers benefit from the terrorists' military skills, weapons supply, and access to clandestine organizations," Taylor said. "Terrorists gain a source of revenue and expertise in illicit transfer and laundering of proceeds from illicit transactions."

According to the two officials, a "historic link" exists in the Western Hemisphere between various terrorist groups and narcotics trafficking. Three specific geographical areas of concern were listed: Colombia, Peru, and the frontier area of Paraguay near the city of Ciudad del Este that borders both Argentina and Brazil.

"The linkage between drugs and terrorism in Colombia is one that particularly concerns us and one that we watch carefully," the officials said, noting that the country's three main insurgent groups -- the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the National Liberation Army (ELN), and the United Self-Defense Groups of Colombia (AUC) -- are all tied to narcotics trafficking.

Some FARC units throughout southern Colombia raise funds through extortion of both legal and illegal businesses, protection of cocaine-refining laboratories, and involvement in local drug-trafficking activities.

Colombian territory under the influence of the ELN includes areas used to grow opium poppy and cannabis. Although the ELN expresses a disdain for illegal drugs, it "does take advantage of the profits available," the officials said.

The AUC, which includes many Colombian paramilitary forces, has admitted using the cocaine trade to finance its activities. In their statement, Beers and Taylor noted that the head of the AUC, Carlos Castano, said in 2000 that "70 percent" of AUC operational funding was derived from drug money.

In Peru, the remote geographic areas in which Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) guerrillas historically operated, combined with the group's reliance on violence to protect safe havens, made Sendero Luminoso "a natural to engage in protection and extortion rackets involving coca and cocaine," Beers and Taylor observed.

After having "cut a brutal swath through Peru" from the 1980s through mid-1990s, Sendero Luminose waned in the late 1990s, according to the two officials. They said that by 2001, however, the group had a "slight resurgence" in areas of Peru where coca is cultivated and processed, an indication that remnants of Sendero Luminoso are probably financing their operations with profits derived from the drug trade.

Beers and Taylor pointed to Paraguay's tri-border region as a final area of concern in Latin America. They indicated that members of radical Islamic groups there are reported to be engaged in drug trafficking, money laundering, intellectual property rights piracy, alien smuggling, and arms trafficking.

The full text of Beers' and Taylor's prepared testimony is available on the Internet at: http://www.senate.gov/~judiciary/hearing.cfm?id=196