Terrorists Want the Drug Cartels’ Smuggling Channels Into the United States

Terrorist organizations like ISIS are looking for roads into the United States, and whether they get them is merely a question of money...

Police officers during the arrival of more than 7 tons of cocaine at the police airport in Lima on Sept. 1, 2014. Ernesto Benavides/AFP/Getty Images

Terrorist organizations like ISIS are looking for roads into the United States, and whether they get them is merely a question of how much money it will take to convince the drug cartels it’s worth the risk, according to regional experts.

“I think with ISIS’s checkbook, it’s just a matter of time,” said Scott Mann, a retired lieutenant  colonel in the Green Berets, in a phone interview.

“They want to utilize this existing network of narcoterrorism that can move any commodity—dope, people, or a dirty bomb.” Mann said. These guys are looking to leverage this massive network that would allow them to move assets through.”

The drug trade involves more than just powerful cartels looking to make a profit. Throughout the region, there are also narcoterrorist organizations fueled by political ideology, and groups like Hamas and Hezbollah that use illicit trade to fund their activities abroad.

Mann has witnessed these problems firsthand. During his 15 years in the U.S. Special Forces, he was deployed in countries including Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Panama where he helped train government forces friendly with the United States on how to “defend against lawlessness.”

“I did a lot of work with the governments to fight insurgent groups like the FARC,” he said, referring to the Marxist narcotterror group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

While terrorist groups would like to build ties with the drug traffickers, “as far as I know there is no connection whatsoever at this point between narcoterrorists and ISIS,” according to Dr. José de Arimatéia da Cruz, adjunct research professor at the U. S. Army War College.

“At least not at this point,” Cruz said in a phone interview. “Things may change in the future.”

They want to utilize this existing network of narcoterrorism that can move any commodity—dope, people, or a dirty bomb.

— Scott Mann, retired lieutenant colonel, Green Berets