[Free Beacon] The international community is increasingly concerned that the Islamic State and other terror groups may be exploiting weakness in Latin America to fund their terrorist activities.American officials and international experts met with representatives of 10 nations in Argentina last week to discuss joint efforts to prevent terrorist financing in Latin America, amid growing concern that Islamic extremist groups are operating in the region.
The Regional Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Forum was organized by U.S. Rep. Robert Pittenger (R., N.C.), chairman of the congressional taskforce on terrorism and unconventional warfare, and Mariano Federici, president of Argentina’s Financial Intelligence Unit.
Pittenger told the Washington Free Beacon that he has become worried about the "growing nexus" between terrorists and criminal drug lords in Latin America. Hezbollah militants have been linked to the drug trade in Latin America, and Pittenger and others worry about the possibility of ISIS and similar groups establishing funding channels in the region.
"There is a consensus, clearly, among our friends in South America that their countries could be the subject of the transfer of moneys and the origination of funding from ISIS and other terrorist groups," Pittenger said Monday. "Interest is growing. Like any terror group, terrorists will go to any means to find the funds that they need to achieve their objective."
I must ask you Congressman Pittenger, if you were a fok'n terr, what might you do ?
"All of our countries in the region are on the watch for possible threats related with ISIS and particularly with the recruitment of foreign terrorist fighters," Federici told the Free Beacon in a separate conversation. "There have been some countries, particularly in the Caribbean region, where there have been fighters recruited to join the lists of ISIS."