Washington sanctions Al-Qaeda members in Brazil

The US has blacklisted several people it says were part of an Al-Qaeda support network in Brazil. The terrorist group’s operatives were involved in printing fake money, according to Washington.

The US Department of the Treasury announced on Wednesday that it had blacklisted three Al-Qaeda-affiliated individuals and two entities based in Brazil. 

“The activities of this Brazil-based network demonstrate that Al-Qaeda remains a pervasive global terrorist threat,” Under Secretary of the Treasury Brian Nelson said, adding that new sanctions were aimed at curbing the terrorist group’s financial support.

The Treasury named Haytham Ahmad Shukri Ahmad Al-Maghrabi as one of the original members of the Brazilian Al-Qaeda network. He arrived in the country in 2015 and had numerous business dealings, including “the purchase of foreign currency.”

Another person on the sanction list is Mohamed Sherif Mohamed Mohamed Awadd, who the Treasury said was involved in printing counterfeit currency. Awadd and another blacklisted individual, Ahmad Al-Khatib, were said to have owned furniture businesses in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city. All of the sanctioned men were said to have provided support to Al-Qaeda.

Al-Qaeda was responsible for numerous assaults on US civilians and troops, including the 9/11 terrorist attack, in which nearly 3,000 people died. The group’s founder, Osama bin Laden, was killed by US commandos in 2011 in Pakistan.

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