Pirated film CDs, key source of income for terrorists: report

Rackets of pirated movies, which include key players like terror mastermind Dawood Ibrahim, are the main source of income for terrorists across the world, a leading US think tank has said.

Rackets of pirated movies, which include key players like terror mastermind Dawood Ibrahim, are the main source of income for terrorists across the world, a leading US think tank has said.

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Elusive Dawood is among the top-ranking in this highly profitable business in the South Asia region, says California-based RAND Corporation in its latest report “Film Piracy, Organised Crime and Terrorism”.

The report said that Dawood-led D-Company appears to have morphed from a traditional criminal syndicate motivated by money to a terrorist group motivated by a political agenda and have used film piracy to help fund their activities.

“Dawood is India’s godfather of godfathers who runs criminal gangs from Bangkok to Dubai. Ibrahim’s gang syndicate, called D-Company, engages in strong-arm protection, drug trafficking, extortion and murder-for-hire,” it said.

While crime syndicates have added piracy to criminal portfolios that include drugs, money laundering, extortion and human smuggling, the profits from film piracy also have been used on occasion to support the activities of terrorist groups, says the researchers.