“Terrorists finance themselves with the Canary Islands migration route”

From Afghanistan has Somaliaeither KenyaPassing through the Sahel, all this baggage and acquired knowledge may have made her the woman in the Armed Forces most specialized in the financing of jihadist terrorism.

This week, she also became the first service member to have a doctoral thesis published by the Ministry of Defense. During the presentation to the army headquarters, She was supported by Minister Margarita Robles. For a portfolio holder to present a commander’s thesis had never happened before.

academic work, The financing of international terrorism and its impact on security and defensepublished by the Ministry of Defense, explores the dark paths of money that organizations like Daesh or Al-Qaeda obtain for their criminal activities.

In its pages, Commander Antúnez, of the Armed Forces Service Corps, examines how terrorists they manipulate the international financial system using transnational criminal networks, the system hawala, payment platforms to launder money and illegal immigration networks to finance their attacks and operations.

Antúnez warns of this in his thesis and during his interview with EL ESPAÑOL. There is a danger that citizens may perceive as distant, but which directly affects national security, he warns.

“The situation in the African Sahel region is very worrying for Europe and more particularly for Spain. It must be understood that jihadism is closely linked to organized crime. And it dominates everything there,” he underlines.

We see the main consequence for Spain, as he states, in the Canary Islands: “Jihadist organizations are mafias that dominate human trafficking and make the archipelago the main landing point for immigrants in Europe. The Libyan roads that led to Italy have become more difficult in recent years for human traffickers, which is why now the route is the one that reaches the archipelago.

Indeed, in his 332-page thesis, he explains how immigration, drug trafficking and terrorism in Africa are closely linked realities. To the point that some are the consequence of others. “The sources of funding are very complex, but in the thesis we discovered that “International terrorism and organized crime are two sides of the same coin.”.

The line that separates them, says the expert and researcher, is practically non-existent. “Until 2021 [la época en la que centra su análisis la comandante]the main sources of financing for jihadism were three: drug trafficking, arms trafficking and human trafficking. “We know that the irregular migratory flows that we receive are a consequence of the terrorist mafias operating in the Sahel.”

“Jihadism in the Sahel It is financed today with the boats that arrive on the archipelago“, sentence. “Thus, the most profitable migratory route currently for terrorists is that of the Canary Islands”, he underlines.

This is a conclusion similar to that reached by the State Attorney General’s Office Report 2023. This shows that illegal immigration has become a serious and transversal problem for our country and for Europe. “The mafias who lead illegal immigration were linked on numerous occasions with the financing of other criminal behavior, including terrorism and crimes against public health, which requires a coordinated response,” the prosecution said in its latest filing.

Experience in Africa

He started as a lieutenant, as a communications soldier in the HUMINT unit in Afghanistan. Inmaculada perfected his Arabic there. Master it Dariyaas Moroccan Arabic is called. He says he is not fluent in classical Arabic, although he speaks it quite fluently. Years later, as captain, he would travel to Africa. He holds the position of manager of financial resources and accounting at the European Union mission in Somalia.

They assigned it to the capital of Kenya, Nairobi. From there, he traveled once a month to Mogadishu, the Somali capital where the mission contingent is located. Given the danger the country represents, it was impossible for his position as financial director to be held in this place devastated by civil war, where terrorist attacks by the jihadist branch of Al Sabah were the order of the day.

As head of budget and finance, Commander Oliva was required to carry out large cash transactions at local banks. “Neither Somalia had the banking system nor the minimum security conditions to be able to carry out these functions, so I carried out most of the mission in absolute solitude in a small apartment in a residential complex in Nairobi, with no other security than my common security. sense”.

He remembers this experience as a difficult ordeal that he would finally be able to overcome. “It made me grow as a professional and mature as a person. We always worked under the imminent danger of being attacked at the grassroots by jihadists. My vulnerability as a woman in a deeply sexist country was faced with serious difficulties on numerous occasions.”

During his mission to Somalia, he investigated how banks were involved in accepting deposits of funds linked to cases of maritime piracy and foreign hostage kidnappings. “The ransom money was mainly spent locally and was the main source of income for the population. Integration into an EU mission also presented the paradox that the new migration strategy deployed by Europe, which involves working with countries of origin or transit, indirectly finances jihadists.

This is so, he explains, because these countries of origin, like Somalia, “fund themselves fundamentally through international terrorism. The European project leaves a lot of money to regimes that are far from democratic, with the aim of them doing everything possible.” to close these desert highways to human traffickers.

Thus, the European Union and Western countries “finance indirectly to the militias accused of genocide in Darfur or Mogadishu, who act as border agents to stop this migratory route, while training them militarily in the management of migratory flows.

United Nations Fund

There he discovered, as he recounts in his thesis, how funds intended for refugees from the United Nations (UN) end up in the hands of terrorists from Al-Shabaab, the Al-Qaeda affiliate in the country. This is what he says in his doctoral research:

“Al-Shabaab earns millions of dollars each year by exploiting international aid sent to Somalia by Western countries trying to eliminate the terrorist group. Former members of the organization and Somali intelligence agents say the terrorist group extorts thousands of dollars a day. through roadblocks and revolutionary taxes on traders attempting to transport food and supplies intended for internationally displaced people to the cities where they are concentrated,” Antúnez writes.

The harsh reality is that in many of these countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the main global hotbed of terrorism, the organizations end up forming a kind of parallel state. “In many countries like Mali, they are the economic support of the populations of these failed states. The terrorists try to mask their activity by providing a service to the community. They carry out the work of NGOs, some of which serve as a cover. Organized crime and jihadist mafias force the population to pay them bribes to let them live in peace.

In recent months, the migration crisis facing the Canary Islands has worsened. So much so that even the president of the government, Pedro Sánchez, changed his speech, turning to the defense of the expulsions and recognizing that human mafias are at the origin of the massive arrival of cayucos in the islands.

Experienced commander reveals what evidence shows about militias operating in the Sahel: “Its main source of funding is human trafficking, like those who arrive in the Canary Islands. During arms or drug trafficking, if the trafficker loses the goods, he must answer for it. On the other hand, what we see with human traffickers is that they have an absolutely robust business. »

Human traffickers charge in advance, he reveals. “And then they don’t care whether the merchandise arrives or not. They don’t have to answer for the loss or damage of the merchandise and that’s why it’s really dangerous that human trafficking is one of their main sources of financing, with 100% of the benefits. “It is a mine for jihadist networks in this African region.”.

Conclusions

Inmaculada Antúnez is also the author of the autobiographical book Be naughty, be brave (Croissant, 2023). She recounts a childhood full of difficulties which led her to shake up conventions and find her way in one of the most complex fields in the world: the fight against international terrorism.

Currently, Commander Antúnez is attending the XXVI General Staff Course of the Armed Forces at the Higher Center for National Defense Studies (CESEDEN). He wants to become a staff officer and continue to study the same subject in depth.

Some conclusions from his doctoral thesis are clear. “The control of illegal immigration must be addressed as a priority for defense and security actions, given the vulnerability in which Spain is placed by the uncontrolled arrival of immigrants.”

In recent times, agents responsible for combating illegal immigration have observed all types of profiles arriving in Spain. “Among the populations of the Sahel There are individuals who, because of their corpulence, their agility, manipulation of blunt objects or improvisation of attack devices against security forces, “They received military type or ‘guerrilla’ type training.”writing. “This shows that there is learning that can have the aim of committing illegal acts, including those of a terrorist nature.”