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'Al-Qaeda Gold Moved to Sudan'
Tuesday, September 3, 2002
(16:04 GMT) (17:04 UK)
The BBC

Gold is al-Qaeda's preferred financial tool.
Image Credit: BBC.com.

"We know they are looking at new sources of revenue and are finding new ways to raise and move funds to where they are accessible. The bankers are the ones that move the money and the bankers are not sitting in caves in Afghanistan."

Al-Qaeda and Taleban gold has been shipped out of Pakistan to Sudan, passing through the United Arab Emirates and Iran, according to Pakistani and US investigators.

A Washington Post newspaper report says that in recent weeks large quantities of gold, often disguised as something else, have left the Pakistani port of Karachi in small boats bound for either Iran or Dubai.

Once there, the boxes of gold are mixed with other goods and packed on board chartered planes bound for Khartoum, the Sudanese capital.

It is not known exactly how much gold has been transported.

But US and European intelligence officials said the amount was great enough to indicate that the al-Qaeda network and the Taleban still had large financial reserves at their disposal.
(More: BBC Online News Source)
2002 © The British Broadcasting Corporation.

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