GETTY ISIS have used people trafficking to plug their falling incomes

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Alessandro Pansa claimed it is “new business” for jihadis to be diversifying into people smuggling but has become increasingly commonplace after a fall in its traditional means of income. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s twisted followers have been forced out of large areas of land which it seized in Syria and Iraq in 2014 and has seen a near collapse in income from oil smuggling.

ISIS has recently significantly retreated Alessandro Pansa

Jihadis have been plugging the gaps in its collapsing financial structure by smuggling desperate migrants into Europe, according to Alessandro Pansa. The Director General of the Department of Information Security for the Italian Council of Ministers claimed it is “new business” for ISIS to become embroiled with people smuggling. Pansa said: “ISIS has recently significantly retreated. Its sources of revenue, primarily smuggling oil products and antiquities, are at the edge of drying out.

GETTY Pansa said people smuggling is 'new business' for ISIS

"We think that terrorists are resorting to human trafficking as a new source of revenue.” Panda added that special “partnerships” between jihadis and “criminal” smuggling networks in Africa were blossoming and that the criminal organisations were fast becoming another cash cow from terrorists. Italy is one of the main countries where migrants illegally arrive into Europe, using the Central Mediterranean entry route.

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GETTY Pansa added that ISIS have retreated in recent months