The Terrorist-Criminal Nexus ─ An Alliance of International Drug Cartels, Organized Crime, and Terror Groups

"Chapter 1 A Poisonous Brew While organized crime is not a new phenomenon today, some governments find their authority besieged at home and their foreign policy interests imperiled abroad. Drug trafficking, links between drug traffickers and terrorists, smuggling of illegal aliens, massive financial and bank fraud, arms smuggling, potential involvement in the theft and sale of nuclear material, political intimidation, and corruption all constitute a poisonous brew--a mixture potentially as deadly as whatwe faced during the Cold War : R. James Woolsey Former Director, CIA Al Qaeda works with the mafia. The mafia works with outlaw motorcycle gangs. Biker gangs work with white supremacists. Surprised? Ten years ago, when I wrote my first book on this subject, the number of experts who would acknowledge that a nexus may exist between terrorists and criminals could be counted on one hand. In fact, Mr. Woolsey's statement above was made in 1994, long before most people heard of al Qaeda, human trafficking andloose nukes. Unfortunately, the "poisonous brew" is becoming more toxic with time. Transnational organized crime is escalating, the cartels are global and undeterred, and the list of State Department Foreign Terrorist Organizations continues to grow. Transnational crime is a growing U.S. national security concern, and it threatens us in new, provoking ways. For example, Americans formerly viewed drug use as a law enforcement or health issue. Only very recently has drug trafficking been established as a global crime with a corresponding national security threat"--

Colonel (Ret.) Jennifer L. Hesterman was commissioned in 1986 as a graduate of Air Force ROTC at Penn State University. During her twenty-one-year career, she served three Pentagon tours and commanded multiple units in the field. Her last assignment was Vice Commander, 316th Wing at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, the home of Air Force One. Her decorations include the Legion of Merit and the Meritorious Service Medal with five oak leaf clusters. Colonel Hesterman is a doctoral candidate at Benedictine University and also holds master’s degrees from Johns Hopkins University and Air University. In 2003, she was a National Defense Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, where she immersed herself in a year-long study of the nexus between organized crime and international terrorism. Her resulting book won the 2004 Air Force research prize and was published by AU Press. She is a cleared professional for the MASY Group, a national security and intelligence firm; contributing editor for The Counter Terrorist magazine; and a guest lecturer for federal and state law enforcement agencies.