The annual income of the LTTE terrorists is between 200 and 300 million US Dollars making it the rebel group generating the second biggest income by illegal business..
The August issue of the Jane s Intelligence said the huge income is generated from shipping drugs and extortion by a network of professional managers, across a string of countries. Its income is second only to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, whose income comes from its vast cocaine sales. The LTTE has been spending part of the income to buy conventional arms. Jane s also said the freedom of the Tamil tigers to operate overseas has been reduced by a global crackdown on militant groups.
LTTE’s strategy to acquire high-tech weaponry – Jane’s Intelligence Review
Jane’s Intelligence Review- well known International Review Agency has stated that the LTTE’s strategic need to acquire high-tech weaponry, such as surface-to-air missiles, indicates that its activities will continue.
The Jane’s Intelligence Review in a special edition highlighting LTTE terrorist activities stated that the LTTE’s strategic aim of defeating the Sri Lankan military and securing a political victory in the form of a separate Tamil state depends on the organization’s capacity to source money and arms abroad.
It added that this process can only be undermined if the western law enforcement bodies take steps to crackdown funds and weapons to the LTTE. “After accounting for its estimated USD8 million per year of costs within LTTE-administered Sri Lanka, the profit margin of its operating budget would likely be the envy of any multinational corporation,” the report said.
According to the report, though the estimated annual income of the LTTE is between USD 200 to 300 million its costs are only USD 8 million.
The special report of the leading London-based intelligence magazine investigated how the LTTE also known as Tamil Tigers generates money to support their activities and said, given the losses already incurred by the LTTE since 2006 in the east of the island nation, this may lead to increased pressure to sue for peace, although given the stubborn history of the LTTE not even a rigorous deprecation of its armory will encourage a political settlement. The report also added that the Review staffing front organizations with financial or procurement cadre has become identical to the LTTE. It said the Canadian security intelligence investigations into the flow of funds from Canada to Sri Lanka called “Project Osuluku” led to a raid on the Montreal office of World Tamil Movement as an example. The Jane’s Review said the LTTE is constantly moving to address its strategic imbalance in air superiority with the Sri Lanka Air Force and in need of such weapons as SA-18 Surface to Air Missiles. The report said as the LTTE’s light-wing aircraft are only able to bomb stationary targets anti-aircraft technology would be LTTE’s primary driver of its procurement efforts.
The report said it further makes clear the LTTE wished to obtain military weaponry that could destroy boats. Illustrating the LTTE’s decision-making structure and relative wealth, the operatives – allegedly naming and referring to Pottu Amman as responsible for ‘outside purchasing’ of arms – discussed a price of USD900, 000 to USD937, 000 for an initial package of 10 SA-18 surface-to-air missiles, 500 AK-47 assault rifles and the necessary training, which was to take place in Sri Lanka, the Jane’s Review further said.
The Jane’s Review said, that the document found by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police-FBI details the LTTE operatives’ according to the complaint, indicated that payment could be made through accounts in the US , Switzerland , St Croix in the US Virgin Islands or other offshore financial jurisdictions.
The LTTE agents specified the point of delivery should be a ship-to-ship transfer in the Indian Ocean. The Jane’s Review report on the LTTE fund raising described the European Union as an additional theater for the terrorist group’s financial operation. The Review has given a detailed report on the LTTE activities in the recent past to strengthen their point.
It said that since May 2006 since its proscription increased law enforcement activities have taken place in France.The report said Lawrence Thilagar, former head of the LTTE international and Velyummylum Manoharan have been previously based in Paris. Manoharan was also granted French citizenship since May. The French authorities started the raids, the report said, to coincide with the fundraising activities of the Tamil Tigers, believed to start every Friday evening and last until the following Sunday.
Citing an Indian news report the Jane’s report said in France every Tamil family had to pay Euros 2000 (USD 2728) and every Tamil business had to pay Euros 6000 (USD 8185) every year to the LTTE. The report said aggressively violent treatment was applied to those who failed to pay, like abducting Tamils to a LTTE associate owned farm and torturing and ransoming until their families agreed to pay significant amounts to buy the release.
The report said the LTTE outsourced its fundraising tasks to Tamil gangs on a 20 percent commission basis. This had been done to allow the LTTE some plausible deniability in the event of a raid. It further said reports about employing gangs for extortion and other illicit activities by the LTTE were also prevalent in the United Kingdom.
Reporting LTTE fundraising activities in Norway in May 2007 the report said by a credit card fraud some 16 men acting on behalf of the LTTE had gathered NOK 5.3 million (USD 890,000) and on being convicted of the skimming went to jail for five and half years. The report said international credit card frauds are also outsourced on a commission basis.
In May 2007 a six man Tamil team from UK, according to the report arrive in the port city of Singapore with blank cash machine cards, a cash machine card encoder and a portable computer that contained data about card account holders in the United Kingdom.
The demeanor of one of the six aroused suspicions of a security guard and the arrest of all with USD 354,070 in a hotel they have accumulated after three days activity. All were convicted to seven to 10 year’s jail terms. Similar frauds by the LTTE have been caught in Kenya, Sri Lanka and Thailand, the report says.
The report also says the biggest income for the LTTE in Asia is its heroine trafficking and the USD 1 Billion drug market in Montreal is controlled by the LTTE. The report says drugs are being transported from Tamil Nadu to Sri Lanka.The Report said the estimated annual income of the LTTE is between USD 200 to 300 million but its cost is only 8 million.
“After accounting for its estimated USD8 million per year of costs within LTTE-administered Sri Lanka, the profit margin of its operating budget would likely be the envy of any multinational corporation,” the report said.
LTTE earns US$ 300M a year to fund Terror War against Sri Lanka
Renowned defence magazine, the Jane’s Defence Intelligence Review reveals that the LTTE funds its bloody terrorist war against SL with a sophisticated fundraising mechanism that earns “some USD 200 to 300 million a year”.
In a press release on Thursday (July 19) the magazine says that the terror outfit has become “one of the most sophisticated insurgencies in the world” mainly because of its “complex global network of financial resources and weapons”, that are being used to strengthen its campaign against Sri Lanka.
The LTTE has been fighting for a mono-ethnic separate state for the Tamils living in SL since 1983. The war has so far killed over 65,000 people. The magazine points out that the profit earned by a terror outfit as such “would be the envy of any multinational corporation”.
Further, the magazine states it is with this money, that the LTTE has become the only known terror organization to have a “rudimentary air force” and also has been able to introduce “bold new frontiers” to terrorist warfare.
The LTTE is the first terror organization to introduce suicide bombers equipped with suicide belts and waist jackets, and suicide attacks using explosive laden vehicles including trucks and boats. The LTTE has been making a vast contribution to the development of terrorist warfare across the world with its endless innovations in terror training tactics, arms smuggling, bomb making, and etc. The magazine implies that the LTTE has been able to accomplish all of the above, because of its “financial and procurement structures” which are “well organized and strategically positioned around the globe”.
Jane’s magazine also makes an interesting revelation on the LTTE making money through many charitable organizations, which have been created and staffed by the outfit itself. Behind the charitable facade of these organizations, the LTTE is “projecting its influence through this front to raise money from Tamil communities and ultimately, convert the gains into arms” the magazine says. The mechanism efficiently works to move its funds to snatch procurement opportunities and investment options as they arise “utilizing a charitable facade’s tax-free status and legitimacy” Jane’s adds.
The report identifies two sections of the LTTE that are operating internationally for fund raising and arms dealing activities ; the Aiyanna Group and the Office of Overseas Purchases alias KP department.
“The Aiyanna Group functions as the group’s intelligence and operations body, likely to be responsible for monitoring and ensuring the organization’s financial support and revenue streams, while the KP Department is most probably the LTTE’s procurement arm”, Jane’s report says.
According the local defence intelligence sources KP stands for Kumaran Padmanadan, name of a terror suspect wanted by the International Police (Interpol). Aiyanna is also an LTTE cadre who had been appointed to lead the LTTE’s international operations as the network expanded beyond the capacity of KPs’ department. Intelligence sources also said these departments are operating in a mutually supportive manner with other terror organizations such as Al Queda, to achieve their objectives. The heads of these departments are operating under the direct guidance of the LTTE chief, V. Prabhakaran and its intelligence head Pottu Amman, both on the wanted list of Interpol, the sources added.
Jane’s elaborates that the LTTE is adapting geographically myriad of methods to carry out its cross-border terrorist activities. “The southern province of Tamil Nadu in India plays a pivotal role in LTTE procurement and has become an essential transit point in the LTTE arms, narcotics, contraband and possibly human smuggling”, the magazine says.
Local defence analysts also support the view saying that due to the large number of Indian fishing vessels present in the narrow sea area between India and Sri Lanka, it has been practically difficult for the Navies of both countries to make a complete stop to the terror movements. However, the SL navy having extended its capability have been able to deny the terrorists’ use of the Eastern coast of the island almost completely.
Recently, Maldivian defence forces sunk an Indian trawler which had been transporting weapons to the LTTE. It was later revealed that the LTTE terrorists had hijacked the vessel killing the Indian crew except one, and made use of the vessel for arms smuggling. There were many other incidents where the LTTE terrorists have killed and abducted Tamil Nadu fishermen during the recent past. The LTTE’s control over the Island’s North-Western coastal line from Mannar to Elephant Pass is the main supporting factor for the LTTE to carry out terrorist activities between India and Sri Lanka.
Finally, the Jane’s report highlights that the main motivation for the LTTE in its fundraising campaign is to procure an anti- aircraft arsenal. During the 90s the LTTE shot down at least five transport aircraft, including the one carrying civilians, using missile technology.
Defence analysts argue that the leeway given to the LTTE by certain countries during the past had created a monstrous organization that is playing the role of the “Research and Development” department of global terrorism. It has been able to carry out remorseless ethnic ceasing campaigns against Sinhalese and Muslims; maintain a shameful “Baby Brigade” with over six thousand children, and use brain washed Tamil women as suicide bombers, for over two decades.
Ironically, despite its record of atrocities the LTTE has even acquired some legitimacy in certain parts of the world. According to the analysts this is mainly due to its effective propaganda mechanism that has been hoodwinking the world for years. Perhaps, as some defence analysts opine, the LTTE’s propaganda mechanism may be the most sophisticated and complex one that any terror organization would dream of having for its own.
[…] 5q3857evgenii wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptRenowned defence magazine, the Jane’s Defence Intelligence Review reveals that the LTTE funds its bloody terrorist war against SL with a sophisticated fundraising mechanism that earns “some USD 200 to 300 million a year”. … Read the rest of this great post here […]
jane’s report is nice dream. It WILL never come true. If THEIR incom 200 to 300 million $US THEY COULD have bought warplanes. They don’t need sucide bomers and AK47.