CANNABIS CASH FUNDS ISLAMIST TERRORISM

Cannabis smokers are unwittingly funding Islamist extremists
linked to terror attacks in Spain, Morocco and Algeria, according to a
joint investigation by the Spanish and French secret services. The
finding will be seized on both by campaigners for a harsher clampdown
on cannabis and by those who argue that legalisation is the only way
to end a petty dealing trend that is dragging growing numbers of
teenagers into crime.

The investigation by the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia and the
Renseignements Generaux was launched after Spanish police found that
the Islamists behind the March 2004 bombings in Madrid bought their
explosives from former miners in return for blocks of hashish. The
bombings claimed 191 lives.

Spain's role as a transit point for drugs was highlighted last week
when Madrid hosted the US Drug Enforcement Agency's annual conference.
Experts heard not only that North African hashish was funding
terrorism in Europe, but also that West Africa had become a new hub
for South American cocaine shipments bound for Europe.

Morocco is the world's leading cannabis exporter, with an annual crop
estimated to be worth at least ?2bn. Last month, the Moroccan navy
seized three tonnes of Europe-bound hashish off the Mediterranean port
of Nador. The same week, Spanish coastguards seized 4.3 tonnes of
Moroccan resin off Ibiza.

The joint secret service investigation finds that hashish is part of a
'complex financing network' serving the Algeria-based Salafist Group
for Preaching and Combat, affiliated since last year to al-Qaeda. The
group claimed responsibility for two bombings in Algiers on 11 April
that killed 30 people and left 200 injured.

French terrorism expert Dominique Thomas said the link between drug
dealing and Islamic terrorism was not new: 'The issue stands at the
core of divisions within al-Qaeda between those who believe that the
end justifies the means and others who argue that drugs are
incompatible with Islam.'