Labeled as the richest terrorist group in the world, the Islamic State (ISIS) continues to amass substantial funds to bankroll its military, economic, recruitment, and propaganda campaigns. The key sources of ISIS income are grounded in illicit networks, as ISIS utilizes the black market to generate significant revenue streams.
ISIS is far from the only terrorist or hostile organization to accumulate wealth through illicit networks. “For decades, belligerent groups have financed their operations by tapping into a variety of locally available economies, including illegal ones,” explains Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution.
What sets ISIS apart, however, is its vast configuration of illicit networks, considered by some to be the most sophisticated system ever employed by a terrorist entity.
ISIS finances are primarily fueled by illegal oil and antiquities sales, extortion, taxation, kidnap for ransom, and human trafficking. Additional money is received through external donations from charities or individuals primarily based in the Arabian Gulf. The group is also believed to have captured as much as $1 billion from robbing banks across Syria and Iraq, most notably in Mosul.
This array of criminal activity is often conducted with the use of middlemen. Individuals involved in oil transport, the smuggling of people, and antiquities trading, as well as members of certain underground financial systems, known as hawala networks, all lend helping hands to ISIS’ capital ventures.
The U.S. has prioritized cutting off ISIS’ finances as a crucial element of its strategy to defeat the terrorist group. In an Oval Office speech a few days following the terrorist attack in San Bernardino, President Barack Obama said, “We're working with friends and allies to stop ISIL's operations – to disrupt plots, cut off their financing, and prevent them from recruiting more fighters.”
Last May, U.S. Special Forces killed Abu Sayyaf, a senior ISIS official who oversaw the group’s oil and gas operations. During the raid, U.S. forces were also able to procure critical intelligence on how ISIS earns money.
More recently, in November, U.S. fighter planes bombed an estimated 280 trucks that had been used to transport ISIS oil. Just this week, the U.S.-led coalition conducted an airstrike on a major bank in Mosul, destroying millions in ISIS cash.
Additionally, the U.S. Treasury Department has implemented targeted sanctions against major ISIS leaders, financial figures, facilitators, and supporters, and has sought international cooperation to thwart ISIS’s financial networks.
“Treasury remains relentless about depleting ISIL’s financial strength and denying this violent terrorist group access to the international financial system,” said Adam Szubin, Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. “We will continue to hinder ISIL’s ability to gain, move, and use funds, and will work closely with our partners across the U.S. government and the international community to destroy this brutal organization.”
As the battle against ISIS rages onward, uncovering and eliminating ISIS’s illicit networks is a pivotal tactic for cutting off the group’s monetary flow and weakening ISIS’s terrorist campaign.
Bennett Seftel is the Deputy Director of Editorial at The Cipher Brief.
