Cutting the link between drugs and terrorists: countering major terrorist-financing means

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the Taliban and the PKKs involvement in the opium trade. This thesis fills a gap by illustrating the extent to which terrorist organizations use drugs to raise funds in five stages of the heroin trade, including cultivation, manufacturing, shipment, sale, and consumption. These two terrorist organizations have particular strengths and weaknesses that are identified in this thesis. This thesis proposes the counter narcoterrorism solution model, which displays both the convergent and divergent stages of the opium trade. The manufacturing stage is the only stage where the products converge into countable and targetable laboratories. This model suggests that targeting the opium manufacturing process is not only cost effective, but can also reduce the Talibans as well as the PKKs illegal funds.