On 29 September, AP reported that French police arrested 29 people around the country in an operation to break a complex scheme used to finance Islamist extremists in Syria through the use of cryptocurrencies. It says that search warrants have been issued for 2 25-year-olds thought to be the ringleaders and were both convicted in France in 2016 and sentenced in absentia to 10-year prison terms. The 29 people detained for questioning are mostly suspected of injecting funds into the network, but 2 of them are thought to have had key roles in the cyber-financing system, providing logistical aid to keep it working. Hundreds of thousands of euros are thought to have been supplied via the network, benefiting members of al-Qaida still hiding out in northwest Syria, but also jihadis of the Islamic State group.
https://apnews.com/article/arrests-terrorism-archive-france-701371a367d1ae26ff057d6e3d082458
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