Tax fraud scams in Denmark and Sweden used to fund ISIS activity.

Tax fraud scams in Denmark and Sweden used to fund ISIS activity. (NE).

A terrorist network has used tax fraud scams in Denmark and Sweden to fund terrorist activity, Swedish Radio reported on Wednesday.

An investigation of Swedish Radio, Danish Radio, and the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, reveals that a network has used the proceeds of VAT scams to generate just over €100 million. The proceeds have apparently been used to fund terror groups, including a cell in Spain whose main mission was to recruit Islamic State fighters.

From its base of operations in Malmö, Sweden, the network used a Swedish and a Danish company to transfer larger sums of money, involving the sale of mobile phones, dodging VAT charges. In time, both companies filed for bankruptcy.  In 2014, Spanish police raided an address in Melilla, the Spanish enclave in North Africa. Six men were arrested for their role in recruiting 26 jihadi fighters, who were sent to conflict zones.

One of the men detained was a Danish man, officially a resident of Sweden, who was apparently in frequent contact with a homegrown terrorist cell, suspected of financing the recruitment operation. This was the beginning of a transnational investigation, which begun with intercepted phone and e-mail conversations addressing recruitment tactics and objectives. Read the full story here.