Bags Containing $9.6M in Cash Spark Standoff at Somalia Airport

Corruption is Everywhere - UAE, Somalia

By Sommer Brokaw  

Somalia's security officials seized nearly $10 million over the weekend that arrived at Aden Abdulle Airport

in Mogadishu, Somalia. File Photo Dai Kurokawa/EPA-EFE

UPI -- Authorities have started an investigation into bags containing nearly $10 million that arrived on a plane at a Somali airport over the weekend.

Somalia security officials found the money in three unmarked bags on a Royal Jet plane at the airport in Mogadishu, Somalia's interior ministry said.

Royal Jet is a luxury airline based in the United Arab Emirates.

"The seized money is worth $9.6 million," the minister said. "Security agencies are currently investigating where the money came from, where it was going, the individuals involved and the reason for bringing money worth this amount into the country."

Senior security officials told Voice of America the three money bags have been placed in Somalia's central bank for storage.

Officials said the money was seized after diplomat Mohammed Ahmed Othman Al Hammadi's entourage tried to take it out of the airport, but security instructed them to have them scanned.

"The ambassador refused, walked back to the plane with three bags, and counterterrorism units confiscated the three bags," one officer said.

Al Hammadi told VOA the money was not intended for the UAE embassy, but rather the ministry of defense.

"It's for the salary of the Somali soldiers," he said.

Which Somali soldiers, is the question?

The seizure resulted in a standoff for hours between airport officials and UAE embassy staff.

Somalia and UAE relations have been tense since last June when Somalia decided to remain neutral in Persian Gulf political matters.

UK Strips 150 ‘Jihadists and Criminals’ of Citizenship in Major Clampdown on Extremism

© Simon Belcher / Global Look Press

The UK has stripped more than 150 suspected jihadists and criminals of their citizenship as part of counter terrorism efforts aimed at curbing extremism and preventing returning ISIS militants from embedding themselves in civil society.

“There’s an awful lot of people we have found who will never be coming home again. Our number one preference is to get them on trial. If we don’t think that’s possible, we use disruption techniques,” an unnamed senior security source told the Sunday Times.

The so-called "deprivation orders” bans any jihadists who fought alongside Islamic State from returning to the country.

More than 40 suspects have had their right to passports revoked so far in 2017, including the so-called "jihadi brides" who had travelled to Syria.

However, the punishment only applies to suspects with dual nationality, as the UK cannot leave people stateless.  

The clampdown comes after intelligence chiefs warned the Home Office that more than 300 IS-affiliated militants could soon return to the UK amid the impending collapse of the so-called caliphate in Iraq and Syria.

“Prosecution and conviction is always our preference for dealing with terrorists,” security minister Ben Wallace told the Sunday Times.

“Tpims (terrorism prevention and investigation measures) are one of a range of powers at our disposal to disrupt terrorism-related activity where prosecution is not possible.”

Temporary exclusion orders, which impel suspected extremists to attend deradicalization programs, have been used in the past to deal with jihadists who cannot be stripped of their citizenship.

“We have planned and prepared for the risk posed by British returnees as Daesh [Isis] is defeated in Iraq and Syria and we are using a range of tools to disrupt and diminish that threat," Wallace added.

A major review of British anti-terrorism measures is scheduled for the autumn. Proposals include tighter controls for anyone suspected of terrorist sympathies, as well as a ban on accessing encrypted social media apps that have been used to plan terrorist attacks in the past.

UK security services are currently monitoring roughly 23,000 extremists, so the deprivation of citizenship is a means to limit any significant increases in that number.

In other words, it will not make Britain safer, just limit the degree to which it becomes even less safe.

“Citizenship of the UK is not an absolute right, nor should it be,” Richard Walton, the former head of counter terrorism at Scotland Yard, said.

“It is good to see these powers being used more frequently — for too long terrorists have been able to engage in terrorism abroad then return home without hindrance.”

Here, here!