Event
- Al Shabaab Drug Trafficking reports shows how the militant group is diversifying ways of soliciting funds to fund their terrorism activities in East Africa
- 5 tonnes of drugs and weapons hauled from a convoy of militants suspected to be a source of funding for Islamist groups across the continent.
- Intelligence teams working with special agents from the anti-narcotics department have fast established that Somali based Al Shabaab Mujahideen key leaders are engaging in drug-trafficking along the border to raise funds for terror activities.
- Intelligence gathered show a section of the key Al Shabaab leaders have special links with other traffickers, all operating on the Kenya maritime zone.
Why Al-Shabaab Want Quick Funds Through Drug Trafficking
Kenya has already sealed a major Al Shabaab’s financial sources in the country following the closure of suspicious Hawalas and bus companies.
Drug trafficking and illegal elephant poaching in Kenya is could be the next activity bolstering Al-Shabaab in Somalia, contributing up to 40 percent of the gang’s economic threshold.
Al Shabaab militants are using whatever means they can to get easy money after Kenya starved off their trade routes and financial lifelines.
Security along the Kenya-Somali Border
The Kenya-Somalia border is so porous and the government needs to invest in more ground intelligence to curb activities which are financially supporting Al Shabaab.
Reports gathered by intelligence teams strategically positioned along the coast and northern border indicate that the group is receiving missiles, people, food and drugs through the border.
Some key Al Shabaab leaders are working with Kenyans who are also their informants on land, weakening counter-terrorism strategies laid down.
Further intelligence suspect that Al Qaeda operatives linked to Al Shabaab are still supporting the group through the border, a pattern which is believed the group could have used to smuggle bombs used in the 1998 attacks on American embassies in Nairobi and Tanzania.
