JEDDAH, 20 September 2003 — The cost of operations by terrorists in the Kingdom has been estimated at more than $500 million (SR1.88 billion), informed sources said. They also traced close links between terrorists and drug traffickers in the smuggling of arms into the Kingdom.
In a report carried by Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, security sources also said the Kingdom’s southern neighbor Yemen was the main channel used by smugglers and terrorists to bring in weapons and explosives.
The sources said the authorities reached these findings based on interviews with suspected terrorists arrested in the Kingdom recently and after assessing the value of weapons and explosives seized from these suspects as well as from cross-border smugglers.
“Most of the weapons smuggled into the Kingdom, especially missiles, missile launchers, bombs, weapons and explosives, came from Yemen,” the Arabic daily said quoting the sources.
Asharq Al-Awsat also quoted sources in the delegation accompanying US Treasury Secretary John Snow during his recent visit to the Kingdom as saying that Riyadh had urged Washington to join its efforts to shed light on the worldwide link between terrorists and drug traffickers.
The newspaper report also said that drug traffickers were the main partners of terrorists in efforts to purchase weapons and explosives. It said Al-Qaeda elements in Afghanistan also had contacts with drug dealers in that country.
The sources said the huge volume of weapons and explosives seized from terrorists indicated that they could not be solely financed by charitable donations from Saudis in the Kingdom.
However, they did not rule out that charity funds might have been used for terror financing as terrorists were ready to use all means available to them to achieve their goals.
The terrorist networks used different means to smuggle weapons into the Kingdom, especially cold-storage trucks and large containers where they had hidden them in secret pockets. They also used the side barriers of trucks to hide highly explosive material such as RDX. Smugglers also used camels and donkeys as carriers, and some smuggling operations were carried out with the help of herdsmen.
The weapons and explosives seized from terror suspects as well as from smugglers included 20 tons of a chemical mix used to make explosives, 449 kilograms of RDX, 146 bombs, more than 100 machine guns, several RPGs, and thousands of pieces of live ammunition in addition to various communication devices.
