Forensics Journal - Stevenson University 2015 | Page 46

STEVENSON UNIVERSITY

the Internet, virtual currencies can be used globally to make payments
and funds transfers across borders” (United States Government,
Accountability Office, 2011).

Representative Committee on Foreign Affairs, Hezbollah operates
with the Lebanese Shia community in productive criminal endeavors
and offers socially acceptable aid by operating local schools. The
Hezbollah group also “fields its own large paramilitary force, which
is considered more powerful than the armed forces of Lebanon”
(Terrorist Groups in Syria, 2013). In 2012, Hezbollah was in charge
of terrorist plots and assaults on Israeli targets around the world
(Terrorist Groups in Syria, 2013).

Terrorist organizations find virtual currency to be an effective
method for raising illicit funds because, unlike cash transactions,
cyber technology offers anonymity with less regulatory oversight.
Due to the anonymity factor, Bitcoins are an innovative and
convenient way for terrorists to launder money and sell illegal
goods. In Mr. Cohen’s press release, he stated, “virtual currencies
are appealing for terrorist financiers since funds can be swiftly sent
across borders in a secure, cheap, and highly secretive manner”
(Cohen, 2014). The obscurity of Bitcoin allows international
funding sources to conduct exchanges without a trace of evidence.
This co-mingling effect is similar to money laundering but without
the regulatory oversight. Government and law enforcement agencies
must be able to share information with public regulators when they
become suspicious of terrorist financing.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) investigated the
trade-based money-laundering scheme involving Hezbollah and the
Lebanese Canadian Bank (LCB). The court documents noted that
LCB was engaged in a trade-based money laundering “through the
United States financial system and the used car market” (United
States of America v. Lebanese Canadian Bank, 2012, p. 3). Cash
raised through Joumaa illicit drug trafficking was then wiretransferred from Lebanon to the United States in order to purchase
used cars for follow-on shipment to Africa and eventual resale.

HYBRID TERRORISTS

U.S. CITIZENS: THE RISK OF TERRORIST ACTIVITIES ON
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION SERVICES

Over the past decade, fanatic religious ideologists have evolved
to become hybrid terrorists demonstrating exceptional versatility,
innovation, opportunism, ruthlessness, and cruelty. Hybrid
terrorists are a new breed of organized criminal. Merriam-Webster
defines hybrid as “something that is formed by combining two
or more things” (“Hybrid,” 2014). In the twentieth century, the
military, intelligence forces, and law enforcement agencies each
had a specialized skill-set to employ in response to respective crises
involving insurgency, international terrorism, and organized crime.
Military forces dealt solely with international insurgent threats to
the government; intelligence forces dealt solely with international
terrorism; and law enforcement agencies focused on their respective
country’s organized crime entities. In the twenty-first century, greed,
violence, and vengeance motivate hybrid terrorists. According to
Mr. Lormel, hybrid terrorists rely on organized crime such as money
laundering, wire transfer fraud, drug and human trafficking, shell
companies, and false identification to “sustain their organizational
operations” (Lormel, “Assessing the Convergence” p. 3). Mr. Lormel
described Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) as entities,
which “carry out criminal operations across international borders”
(2). TCO