RIYADH, 19 June 2005 — The Interior Ministry has announced that it will soon establish a special department for tracing illegal financial activities in the Kingdom.
“The Interior Ministry is in the final stages of completing the procedures for establishing a department which will track down illegal financial activities,” Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, the ministry’s official spokesman, said yesterday.
Al-Turki also said the department’s responsibilities would include uncovering money laundering operations which is part of the ministry’s efforts to combat terrorism in the Kingdom. He said the department would coordinate with financial institutions to carry out its investigations and also exchange information with related government bodies.
“Such information will also be shared with neighboring countries,” he added.
“The aim of establishing this department is to dry up all sources for financing terrorist activities and other suspicious financial activities,” he pointed out.
In a related development, Al-Turki said the ministry had no information on the whereabouts of the three top terrorists remaining on its most wanted list: Saleh Al-Oufi, Talib Al-Talib and Abdullah Al-Rashood. He said there was no information about where they were or even whether they were still in the Kingdom.
He added that security forcers were on the lookout for possible terrorists and suspicious activities.
Earlier this year, Crown Prince Abdullah emphasized the need to combat arms smuggling, drug smuggling and money laundering in order to make the war on terrorism successful. He also called for the establishment of an international center for combating terrorism in which countries would exchange information and cooperate with one another in the fight against terror.
