370 Revista del Instituto Español de Estudios Estratégicos Núm. 1 / 2013 Another criminal activity of significance carried out by the jihadists involved in the scenarios that we have been analysing relates to various forms of illegal trade. Both the Afghan Taliban and the rest of the Af-Pak jihadists have complemented their income related to drug trafficking by means of their participation in operations of trafficking in chemical precursors for preparing drugs, cannabis, weapons, precious stones, tobacco and wood. These illegal forms of trade have also performed a significant role amongst the activities that have concerned the katibas or branches of AQIM that have put down roots in the western strip of the Sahara, here smuggling patterns form an entire cultural pattern. As we mentioned some pages before, tobacco smuggling has constituted one of the sources of financing of the AQIM even before it abandoned its earlier name (SGPC or Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat). In particular this was done by the katiba that as led until a short time ago by Mokthar Belmokhtar who, not coincidentally, received the nickname of “Mr. Marlboro”44. Tobacco smuggling is probably the most lucrative form of trade of the many kinds that are practised in the region, above the smuggling of fuel, the arms trade and even drug trafficking45. Consequently, the gains extracted by AQIM by charging money to the tobacco smugglers that cross the Sahara desert should not be underestimated. Lastly, the Iraqi scenario provides the best example concerning the involvement of jihadist elements in a variety of crimes geared towards fostering the fraudulent sale of fuel. According to data included in the Iraq Study Group Report, prepared during 2006 and presented to the United States Congress at the end of that particular year, between 15,000 and 200,000 barrels of oil, or perhaps many more, were stolen in that country every day during the first years of the conflict that began following the 2003 invasion46. The origin of that problem should be sought in the significant increase that the price of fuel underwent during those years due to budgetary restrictions and limitations on supply caused by the situation of conflict. The main consequence was the creation of a lucrative black market. All of the insurgents who were present in the country contributed towards this, without overlooking AQI or other jihadist militants. Besides controlling several of the distribution and exportation routes of oil and fuel, which made it possible to impose charges on the smugglers and sell protection to them, there are reports that demonstrate that some insurgent cells collaborated with certain companies created using illegal funds, whose bosses ended up being tried for having sold fuel that had been stolen from the Iraqi state at values that were higher than the market price47. In the same way, some of the attacks carried out by insurgents solidated? ” Elcano Royal Institute, ARI 52/2012, 17/07/2012. 44 BILLINGSLEA, William. “Illicit Cigarette Trafficking and the Funding of Terrorism,” The Police Chief, vol. 71, nº 2, 2004; Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Illicit Tobacco Trade, June 2012. 45 DOWARD, Jamie, op. cit. 46 BAKER III, James A. and HAMILTON, Lee H. “The Iraq Study Group Report”, United States Institute of Peace, Washington D.C., 2006. 47 Oehme III, Chester G., op. cit.; WILLIAMS, Phil, op. cit.
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