Black Market Billions: How Organized Retail Crime Funds Global Terrorists (Gal Zentner's Library) (35 page)

fatwa

A legal pronouncement in Islam issued by a religious law specialist on a specific issue.

FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF)

A partnership between various U.S. law enforcement agencies that is charged with taking action against terrorism. This includes investigating crimes such as wire fraud and identity theft. The agencies that comprise a JTTF generally include the FBI, other federal agencies (notably, Department of Homeland Security components such as the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Transportation Security Administration, U.S. Secret Service, and the Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service), state and local law enforcement, and specialized agencies such as railroad police. JTTFs engage in surveillance, electronic monitoring, source development, and interviews in their pursuits. FBI task forces obtain written memoranda of understanding (MOUs) between participating law enforcement agencies. The FBI provides funds to pay for participating agencies’ expenses, such as officer overtime, vehicles, fuel, cell phones, and related office costs.

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)

Established January 1, 2000 to regulate the U.S. trucking industry. FMCSA is headquartered in Washington, D.C. and employs more than 1,000 people in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Its primary mission is improving the safety of commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) and truck drivers through enactment and enforcement of safety regulations.

fence

Someone who purchases the items boosters steal and sells them on the black and gray markets. Fences and fencing operations are the point people who sell stolen merchandise to consumers at flea markets, swap meets, pawnshops, and online auction sites (a practice also known as
e-fencing
). Fences often operate legitimate businesses in conjunction with illegitimate enterprises. Fences can be either commercial or residential.

A Level 1 fence is a low-level fence often called a
street fence
. This kind of fence steals merchandise in small quantities and either sells or exchanges it quickly for cash. Most Level 1 fences are drug addicts and sell the merchandise on the street at swap meets or flea markets.

A Level 2 fence, also known as a
mid-level
fence, works with accomplices, often using cell phones, wireless devices, and e-mail to communicate and lift product across state borders.

A Level 3 fence is a
high-level
fence who works in an organized group of up to eight people. They cover large geographic areas such as the Eastern and Western Seaboards or big sections of the Midwest. They move tens of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise a day.

Financial Action Task Force (FATF)

An intergovernmental body whose purpose is to develop and promote national and international policies to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. The FATF is a policy-making body that works to
generate the necessary political will to bring about legislative and regulatory reforms in these areas.

Galeria Page mall

In the Tri-Border Area of Paraguay, a mall owned by a Hezbollah sympathizer who employed other Hezbollah sympathizers to manage the mall and staff stores. He would send money back to Iran as part of Hezbollah aid.

gift card fraud

A type of fraud that occurs in all types of retailers. There are several ways to commit gift card fraud, but most thieves obtain a stolen gift card, activate it, and sell it online. Alternatively, they obtain stolen credit card numbers, create gift cards, and sell them on online auction sites or gift card exchange sites.

gray market

Unlike the black market, where goods are channeled through illegal means, the gray market allows regulated product from a legal source to be sold to an unauthorized marketplace or channel. Walk through a tourist area of any major city, and you will notice electronics stores that have TVs, DVD players, and computers all drastically underpriced. According to an NYPD source, most of those stores are selling gray market products. Products intended for a specific market are “diverted” and sold to a different unauthorized marketplace through an intermediary.

hawala

Also known as
hundi
. An informal value transfer system based on the performance and honor of a huge network of money brokers who are located primarily in the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and South Asia. Can also be made up of a network of hawala brokers, or
hawaladars
.

Hezbollah

Arabic for “party of God.” A Shi’a Muslim militant group and political party based in Lebanon. It leads the March 8 Alliance, which withdrew from the government in January 2011 over its refusal to reject the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. It receives financial and political support from Iran and Syria. Its paramilitary wing is regarded as a resistance movement throughout much of the Arab and Muslim worlds. Multiple countries, including predominantly Sunni Arab nations such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan, have condemned Hezbollah’s actions.

hired booster

Usually a former driver from countries such as Cuba, Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico. These boosters are hired by shell warehouses and are paid $500 to lift merchandise, dispose of its packaging, and ship it to another address, where the warehouses then resell it. The warehouses report the merchandise as stolen and collect the insurance money, creating another fraudulent revenue stream.

Ihsan

An Arabic derivative of the verb
ahsana
, which means “to do things better.” Ihsan is considered the highest of the three levels of the Muslim faith (the other two are Islam and Iman) and the closest to God.

illegal Internet pharmacy

A web site that sells controlled prescription drugs such as Xanax, Oxycontin, Vicodin, Ritalin, and Valium without a license to sell them. Illegal Internet pharmacies do not require the purchaser to provide a valid prescription and often sell OTC medicines as well.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

A federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that identifies, investigates, and dismantles vulnerabilities regarding the nation’s border, economic,
transportation, and infrastructure security. The largest components within DHS are Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO). Headquartered in Washington, D.C., ICE investigates and enforces more than 400 federal statutes within the U.S. and maintains attachés at major U.S. embassies overseas. ICE is led by a director who is appointed at the sub-Cabinet level by the President and is confirmed by the Senate. The director reports directly to the Secretary of Homeland Security. The mission of ICE is to protect the U.S. and uphold public safety by enforcing immigration and customs laws.

insurance fraud through cargo theft

A way for terrorists to obtain funding. Fences who own shell warehouses swindle millions of dollars of insurance money to fund terrorist fronts.

International Center for the Prevention of Crime (ICPC)

Founded in 1994 as an international forum for national governments, local authorities, public agencies, specialized institutions, and nongovernment organizations to exchange experience, emerging knowledge, policies, and programs to prevent crime and promote community safety. It helps cities and countries reduce delinquency, violent crime, and insecurity.

International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO)

Also known as the International Islamic Relief Organization of Saudi Arabia (IIROSA). A charity based in Saudi Arabia. The United Nations has listed its branch offices in Indonesia and the Philippines as belonging to or associated with al Qaeda.

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

An international organization created to promote global monetary and exchange stability, to facilitate the expansion and balanced growth of international trade, and to help establish a multilateral system of payments for current transactions.

Islamberg

A Muslim community in Hancock, New York.

Jamaat al Fuqra

Arabic for “community of the impoverished.” A paramilitary organization of mostly African-American Muslims based in Pakistan and the U.S. Some of the approximately 3,000 members have planned various acts of violence, often directed at rival factions. Two al Fuqra members were convicted of conspiring to murder Rashad Khalifa in 1990, and others are alleged to have assassinated Ahmadiyya leader Mozaffar Ahmad in 1983. The group itself is not listed as a terror group by the U.S. or the EU, but it was listed as a terrorist organization in the 1999 “Patterns of Global Terrorism” report by the U.S. State Department. It operates two front groups: Muslims of the Americas and Quranic Open University. The group also has been known to operate in Canada and the Caribbean.

Jam’iyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh (JIS)

Translates into “the assembly for authentic Islam.”

LAAORCA (Los Angeles Organized Retail Crime Association)

In January 2009, Captain Bill Williams and Detective Kent Oda established LAAORCA, a database that tracks the frequency of ORC crime, where it is happening, and possible perpetrators. It communicates the information in real time to its agency and private-sector partners. The idea was to provide a proactive partnership between police and community. In addition, LAAORCA exposes the root causes of crime and disorder and creates efficiencies between prosecutors, courts, corrections, and media.

Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)

Urdu for “Army of the Good,” “Army of the Righteous,” or “Army of the Pure.” Also known as Lashkar-i-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Lashkar-i-Taiba, and Lashkar Taiba. One of
the largest and most active militant Islamist terrorist organizations in South Asia, operating mainly from Pakistan. Responsible for the attacks on Mumbai in 2008.

LEAPS

Recognizing that change needed to be implemented, and quickly, the LAPD created the Law Enforcement and Private Security conference to promote discussions and information sharing between government agencies and private security entities within retailers.

Lebanese Shi’a

Shi’a Islam constitutes some 35% to 49% of Lebanon’s population. Most of its adherents live in the northern area of the Beqaa Valley and southern Lebanon. The majority of Shi’a Muslims in Lebanon are Twelvers, with a community of hundreds of Ismailis. Druze, often accounted for as Ismailis, constitute a further 5% of the population.

loss prevention staff

Executives and associates who are responsible for detecting, reporting, and resolving matters in the areas of safety, inventory shortage (shrinkage), cash handling, and theft, and for providing customer service as per company standards.

M-18

Also known as the 18th Street gang, named after a street in Los Angeles, California. Considered the largest transnational criminal gang in Los Angeles, with an estimated thousands of members in Los Angeles County alone. Approximately 200 individual, autonomous gangs operate under the same label within separate barrios in the San Fernando Valley, the San Gabriel Valley, the South Bay, South Los Angeles, Downtown Los Angeles, Pico Union, Inglewood, Cudahy, and Orange County, according to the latest figures from the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC).

Maniac Latin Disciples

The largest Latin street gang in Chicago.

Mara Salvatrucha

Also known as MS, Mara, and MS-13. A transnational criminal gang that originated in Los Angeles and has spread to other parts of the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Central America. The majority of the gang is ethnically composed of Central Americans and is active in urban and suburban areas.

matricula consular

Also known as the
Matrícula Consular de Alta Seguridad
(MCAS) (consular identification card [CID]). An identification card issued by the Mexican government through its consulate offices to Mexican nationals residing outside of Mexico. The card’s issuance has no bearing on immigration status in the foreign country the person is residing in. The purpose of the card is to demonstrate that the bearer is a Mexican national living outside of Mexico. It includes a Government of Mexico-issued ID number and bears a photograph and address of the Mexican national to whom it is issued.

Mexican Zetas

The Los Zetas Cartel is a criminal organization in Mexico dedicated mostly to international illegal drug trade, assassinations, and other organized crime activities. This drug cartel was founded by a small group of Mexican Army special forces deserters and now includes corrupt former federal, state, and local police officers, as well as ex-Kaibiles from Guatemala. This group of highly trained gunmen was first hired as a private mercenary army for Mexico’s Gulf Cartel. After the arrest of the Gulf Cartel’s leader, Osiel Cárdenas Guillen, as well as other events, the two entities became a combined trafficking force, with the Zetas taking a more active leadership role in drug trafficking. In February 2010, Los Zetas became independent and became
enemies of their former employer/partner, the Gulf Cartel. Los Zetas are led by Heriberto “El Lazca” Lazcano. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) considers Los Zetas as probably the most violent paramilitary enforcement group in Mexico.