Islamic State operating out of small office in UK, financing terror plots

Cardiff company is being used by IS to finance terror plots, The Sunday Times reports

A Cardiff company is being used by the Islamic State (IS) to finance terror plots in the West, The Sunday Times reported.

Citing United States court documents, the newspaper says that the FBI believes military-grade surveillance equipment that could be used for aerial targeting, had been sent to Madrid.



According to The Sunday Times, the documents further show that a high ranking IS official hailing from Bangladesh, Siful Sujan used his Wales-based technology companies to finance terrorism. After joining IS in 2014, Sujan became of its key hackers and technology experts. He was killed in a US drone strike in December 2015.

It further revealed that one of the firms based in Cardiff sent US$7, 700 to an IS supporter named Muhammad Elshinaqy in Maryland, US, who pleaded guilty to terrorism charges last week after admitting to the FBI that he was told to use the fund for terrorism in the US but maintained he “never planned to carry out an attack”. He used the money to buy a laptop, mobile phone and virtual private computer network to communicate with Sujan.



According to court documents, Elshinawy received US$8, 700 from IS sympathisers from different regions – five transactions were believed to be authorised by Sujan. An FBI agent told court that the money was meant for “causing destruction or conducting a terrorist attack in the United States”.

They further claimed that one of Sujan’s companies bought equipment intended to help IS fighters in Syria. Rocket flight computer kits that assist in launching small rockets were bought through a Paypal account but the order was refunded in October 2015 after it failed to reach the Turkish city of Sanliurfa.

This article originally appeared in The Sunday Times.