The interactions between crime and terrorism have long been a subject of interest for academics and policymakers. However, the nature and dynamics of these interactions in the EU have remained largely unexplored, particularly when it comes to terrorist financing.
In CRAAFT’s latest research paper, RUSI Europe researchers Gonzalo Saiz and Stephen Reimer find that, contrary to the popular focus on long-lasting synergies between criminal and terrorist groups, the phenomenon of Crime-Enabled Terrorist Financing (CETF) often takes the form of terrorist actors resorting to petty criminality to fund their activities and making sporadic use of criminal supply chains for resourcing purposes, which often further enable their fundraising commitments.
We would like to invite you to discuss the findings of the report with the authors on 26 May 2023 at 14:00 CEST at the Press Club Brussels Europe, 95 Rue Froissart, 1000 Brussels, or you can join the discussion online. The event will be recorded and published on our website.
Gonzalo Saiz is a Research Analyst at the Centre for Financial Crime & Security Studies at RUSI Europe, specialising in sanctions and counter-threat finance. His work focuses on countering the financing of terrorism and violent extremism, state-based threats involving illicit finance, and sanctions implementation. He has a background researching organised crime and human trafficking in Europe.
Gonzalo is the author of CRAAFT’s Research Briefing Financing Extreme Right-Wing Volunteers in Ukraine: Past Lessons for New Risks?
Stephen Reimer is a Senior Research Fellow at RUSI’s Centre for Financial Crime & Security Studies, where he specialises in countering the financing of terrorism and leads the Centre’s Transnational Threat Finance programme. His recent work has focused on the impact of new technologies on terrorism financing risks in Europe, the national security threats posed by illicit finance, and assessing the risk of terrorism financing abuse in the not-for-profit sector. He is also interested in the unintended human rights impacts of the FATF standards and their misuse as tools for eroding democracy.
Stephen is the author of CRAAFT’s report Bit by Bit: Impacts of New Technologies on Terrorism Financing Risks