How is Pirate Money Transferred?

Shabaab and Pirates collaborate



al Shabaab provides intelligence, weapons and tactical training. In Exchange, Shabaab gets a cut of the ransom or captured goods.

Shabaab's Senior logistician, al Turki, trained as an al Qaeda operative, takes the goods and turns them into a business:

Shabaab uses the stake to invest in a smuggling ring

A black market ring into their next target country, Kenya. They smuggle the goods across the border, paying friendly Muslims with the jobs from the smuggling ring, extending friendships and contacts in Kenya and creating a lucrative business supporting locally developed battle tactics, at the same time, they undermine the tax collection and economy of Kenya.

Bags of Sugar Stamped from Dubai?
cheap electronics
fake designer clothes
Stolen Relief goods like Rice, Pasta Maize

How is the Money is Laundered

• Cash is deposited with Halawas in Kenya,
• and transferred to Hawalas in Dar Es Salam, Uganda and The Sudan, San Marino.
• From there, Hawalas send remittances for agents to pick up in Dubai, Italy Romania.
• From there, They place orders for heavier arms from Beltech export in Belorus, AKs from Venezuela.
• All these orders are made in small amounts with many different agents; only Turki and a few others know all the players.

Here is how Hawalas work

Intelligence objectives:

• Inventory shipping manifests of ships captured by Pirates sitting in Somali Ports
• Compare goods to products being smuggled into Kenya
• Identify the banks who hold the funds for the Hawalas
• Identify the banks where two or more Hawaladars have joint access to funds