Tigers run multi-million dollar terror empire

LONDON: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) run a worldwide legal and illegal business empire generating revenue of $200 to $300 million a year to put towards guns, planes and attack boats, according to an analyst’s report.

The report in the August edition of Jane’s Intelligence Review paints a picture of a powerful global network of professional managers both Tamils and others across a string of countries with operations perhaps from shipping to drugs and extortion.

“Some of the money will go on arms, some of it on areas controlled by the LTTE,” Christian LeMiere, managing editor of Jane’s Country Risk, told Reuters. “Shoulder launched surface to air missiles are almost certainly the most probable item on the wish list but there will also be small arms and other weapons.”

The world’s wealthiest guerrilla group remained Colombia’s FARC because of their vast drugs revenues, he said, but the LTTE was quite possibly second. Weapons were smuggled in from southeast Asia and nearby parts of India, he said.

“But the progress of the war since 2006 has been against the LTTE, so it hasn’t done them very much good,” LeMiere said. There have also been a string of arrests of alleged Tiger weapons buyers in North America, Europe and Thailand.

The report said a network of Tamil charities proved an effective way of moving money. The Sri Lankan Government says large amounts of money raised after the 2004 tsunami found their way to the Tigers.

Jane’s says their freedom to operate overseas was reduced by a global crackdown on terrorist groups after the September 11, 2001 attacks although the LTTE themselves have always steered clear of attacking Western targets.

UK, Tuesday, Reuters