Al Qaeda Moves Into Narcotics, DEA Says

MANHATTAN (CN) - Federal prosecutors charged three men with "narco-terrorism," claiming they conspired to move hundreds of kilos of cocaine through Africa to Spain, for the benefit of al Qaeda and the Colombian-based FARC. Oumar Issa, Harouna Toure and Idriss Abelrahman were arrested in Ghana last week and sent to the United States.

"The charges in this case mark the first time that associates of Al Qaeda have been charged with narco-terrorism offenses," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement announcing the arrests and the arrival of the men in the United States.

The men allegedly admitted their trafficking, and the beneficiaries of it, to DEA informants.

The FARC - the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia - Al Qaeda and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb, the alleged beneficiaries, all have been designated foreign terrorist organizations.

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