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2017 Yearbook
harmless petty offenses and the financing of terrorist activities.
“Terrorists have moved away from selling drugs, since these
criminal activities are too closely monitored by the police.
They now are moving to areas, which are much less attentively
surveyed by the enforcement authorities. Their focus is now
on product piracy, illegal cigarette smuggling and everything
else, where they can make money and not call attention to
themselves.”
The researcher observes that ISIS, Al Qaeda and other terrorist
groups are concentrating on illicit trade and she criticizes that
enforcement authorities in Europe quite frequently would only
arrest the front men and street sellers, but would not sufficiently
investigate, which criminal network is hidden behind such
sellers. This constitutes an obstacle to become aware of links to
terrorism. “There is a very strong connection these days. 95% of
the of the most recent terrorist attacks in Europe had a
criminal background. Some were involved in product
piracy activities, had been smuggling cigarettes, or
have smuggled small quantities of illegal drugs. Some
also had a criminal record of having committed crimes
of violent acts, but in these days there is hardly a
terrorist without a background in criminal activities”.
Back to Barcelona. How easy is it in the heart of
Europe to acquire larger quantities of counterfeit
goods? To experience this, we drive to a suburb and
follow the trace of the street vendors from the beach
promenade to this location. And we quickly find out:
They purchase the goods from Chinese wholesalers.
“What do you want to see?” “Gucci bags and such
kind of stuff”. “They are selling here everything”. “I
also want Nike shoes or Adidas”. “You have however
to buy 12 pairs at minimum”. We take a closer look at
one of those wholesalers. It is amazing: This whole