Terror Threat Crosses Southern Border
Posted on June 3, 2016
https://counterjihadreport.com/2016/06/03/terror-threat-crosses-southern-border/Moslems-On-Mexican-Border
By CounterJihad, June 3, 2016:
“Radicalization is occurring,” said Admiral Kurt Tidd, addressing the question of whether Islamic infiltration along the southern border is a threat. “We just have to recognize that this theater is a very attractive target and is an attractive pathway that we have to pay attention to.”
Tidd, who took over US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) at the beginning of the year, said the Islamic State (ISIS) has between 100 and 150 recruits originally from Latin America. A “number” have attempted to return to the region, which should be relatively easy given their access to proper passports and their native capability with the language and culture.
“It’s the extremist Islamist movement, and that very corrosive engagement that you’re seeing on the internet that they’ve demonstrated an effectiveness in,” ADM Tidd explained of the perhaps surprising recruitment success by ISIS in a majority-Catholic region. Here at CounterJihad we have reported on a similar success by ISIS in recruiting from Catholic-majority Ireland. However surprising, it is the case that Ireland has supplied more fighters to ISIS than the whole of India in spite of its vastly larger Muslim population.
ADM Tidd’s assessment comes as Congress has been informed of a successful infiltration by a Taliban agent along the Mexican border. The Afghan national was in US databases as having terror ties, but somehow was not flagged by American immigration police. Instead, his ‘expedited removal’ notice was overturned and he was allowed to apply for asylum and welfare benefits. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., revealed the matter to Congress based on Homeland Security documents he obtained through proper channels. Hunter told Fox News on Friday that the database disconnect represents a “monumental failure,” and that others will have gotten through if this one did.
In addition to Sunni jihadists, ties between Hezbollah and the region’s drug cartels are an ongoing concern. Iran’s control of the opium trade from Afghanistan allows the Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps to provide Hezbollah with opium as part of its fundraising operations. Hezbollah converts the opium into heroin in its bases throughout the Levant. Being a major supplier of the world’s heroin has allowed the terrorist group the leverage to establish good relations with Latin American cartels. As a consequence, smuggling lines for bringing drugs into the Americas are open to Hezbollah. Bringing terrorists through those same pipelines is not a big stretch.
ISIS, which also has a sizable heroin operation, could follow a similar path. That would only deepen ADM Tidd’s troubles.
