Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/393898
ByDesmondButler The Associated Press HACIPASA, TURKEY Sevda, a 22-year-old waitress in a brown apron, recounts how she made a small for- tune running smuggled die- sel from a village on Tur- key's wild and dangerous border with Syria. But the days when she could earn 20 times her salary waiting tables came to an abrupt end several months ago when police arrested her and slapped her employers with a massive fine. The smuggled fuel came from oil wells in Iraq or Syria controlled by mili- tants, including the Islamic State group, and was sold to middlemen who smug- gled it across the Turkish- Syrian border. Western in- telligence officials have alleged that Turkey is turn- ing a blind eye to a flour- ishing trade that strength- ens the Islamic State group, and Secretary of State John Kerry has called on Tur- key to do more to stem the trade. Analysts estimate that the Islamic State group gets up to $3 million a day in revenue from oil fields seized in Iraq and Syria. But in about two dozen interviews, Turkish authori- ties, smugglers and vendors along Turkey's 900-kilome- ter border with Syria paint a remarkably similar pic- ture: Oil smuggling was a booming business un- til about six months ago, when Turkish authorities ramped up a multi-layered crackdown that has signif- icantly disrupted the illicit trade. Many of those inter- viewed, including Sevda, gave only their first name or asked for anonymity out of fear of reprisals by au- thorities or smugglers, who believe that reports in the Turkish news media led to the crackdown. Turkish authorities say they have beefed up border controls, arrested dozens of smugglers and have gone after consumers with an extensive stop-and-search operation on Turkish high- ways where fuel tanks are tested for smuggled oil. The AP accompanied police on a tour of anti-smuggling mea- sures in Hatay province, which has been the main smuggling conduit, observ- ing new checkpoints and border patrols. Turkey says it seized nearly 20 million liters of oil at the border in the first eight months of this year, about four times as much as in the same period the year before, while illicit fuel dis- covered on consumers has dropped considerably. At the peak of Turkey's oil smuggling boom, the main transit point was a dusty hamlet called Haci- pasa on the Orontes River that marks the border with Syria. Hacipasa has been a smuggling haven for de- cades, authorities and res- idents say. As in other bor- der towns, many families straddle the frontier and trade commodities like sugar and cigarettes back and forth without customs controls. But Syria's civil war and the capture of oil wells by Islamic State militants opened a giant market that made moguls out of some locals. "Some people multiplied their wealth a thousand fold in a few months," says a lo- cal gas station owner who declined to be named. Over tea in his immacu- late office, the chain-smok- ing man who has spent his life along the border says he witnessed the boom and the bust of the smuggling busi- ness. As smuggling took off last year and cheap has from across the border be- came readily available, 80 percent of his legal diesel business disappeared, he said. Since Turkey launched its crackdown, most of it has come back and busi- ness is now only 20 percent off what it used to be. In many points along the Syrian border, diesel smuggling has been done on a small scale, according to smugglers and dealers. But some in Hacipasa fig- ured out how to take it to a higher level, using scores of illicit pipelines under the Orontes. The pipelines were up to three kilome- ters long and laid up to 15 meters deep, dug using so- phisticated imported ve- hicles with equipment de- signed to lay fiber-optic ca- bles that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars each, according to authorities and some of those involved. The diesel, crudely refined in Syria, emerged from of spigots in cotton fields in Hacipasa and nearby towns, where eager buyers lined up. Local authorities began digging up those pipelines months ago, cutting off per- haps the biggest source of smuggled oil in the market. Sevda is an acquain- tance of a journalist who works for AP and has been based in Turkey for many years. She agreed to be in- terviewed on condition that she be referred to only by her first name, which she wore on her waitress' apron. She says that once a week she would coordinate oil runs, sitting next to the driver on 10-hour truck trips from Hacipasa with thousands of liters of diesel to a company in the Ana- tolian city of Denizli, earn- ing $6,500 a trip. She could make less money on quick local trips in a Mercedes se- dan with a secret extra gas tank. Her description of the diesel trade near Hacipasa is consistent with AP's re- porting on the border with Turkish police and people involved in oil smuggling. "Everyone was doing it," she says with a giggle. "It was so much money." About six months ago, the smuggling was so rampant, Sevda says, that trucks and cars with buyers were often backed up on the windy old road to Hacipasa. The ar- rest ended her smuggling career. She says she was released and the company that had been buying diesel from her negotiated down a fine of more than $60,000 to half that, and paid it. Turkish authorities, in- cluding top officials from the police, border guard and gendarmerie paramil- itary police, say the crack- down began last year but took off in the last six months— a period in which Turkey came under increas- ing pressure from allies, in- cluding the United States, concerned that the Islamic State group was funding it- self largely from the illicit oil trade. MIDDLE EAST Tu rk ey c ra ck s do wn o n oi l sm ug gl in g li nk ed t o IS BURHANOZBILICI—THEASSOCIATEDPRESSFILE A Turkish soldier stands as anti-smuggling experts check a bus on a road near Hacipasa, Hatay, Turkey, on Saturday. By Michael Tarm The Associated Press CHICAGO A 19-year-old American left a letter ex- pressing disgust with West- ern society for his parents before trying to board a plane in Chicago, the first step in his plan to sneak into Syria to join the Is- lamic State group, accord- ing to federal court docu- ments released Monday. Mohammed Hamzah Khan, a U.S. citizen who lived with his parents in the Chicago suburb of Boling- brook, was arrested Satur- day while trying to board a plane to Turkey, which bor- ders Syria, at O'Hare In- ternational Airport. He is charged with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist group. Before heading to the airport, Khan left a three- page, handwritten letter in his bedroom for his parents, explaining why he chose to join the Islamic State, ac- cording to a criminal com- plaint. The letter, according to the FYI, read: "We are all witness that the western so- cieties are getting more im- moral day by day." Investigators say Khan also wrote that he was up- set that his U.S. taxes were going to kill his "Muslim brothers and sisters," an ap- parent reference to a bomb- ing campaign against Is- lamic State militants by the U.S and other nations. The letter was signed, "Your lov- ing son." Khan appeared in a fed- eral court Monday in or- ange jail clothes, calmly telling the federal magis- trate that he understood the allegations. Later, as mar- shals led him away in hand- cuffs, the slight, bearded young man turned to smile at his parents at the back of the room. Around 12 Americans are believed to be fighting in Syria now, FBI Direc- tor James Comey said two weeks ago. More than 100 Americans have either tried to go to Syria and were ar- rested, or went and came back to the U.S., Comey said, without offering more details. Khan sought to fly Aus- trian Airlines to Istanbul by way of Vienna when customs officers stopped him as he passed through security at O'Hare's inter- national terminal. While FBI agents interviewed him there, investigators ex- ecuted a search warrant at Khan's home. It wasn't clear why au- thorities chose to stop Khan. Neither prosecutors nor Khan's attorney spoke after Monday's hearing. His parents also didn't com- ment. During the search of his home, FBI agents found the letter and other documents. One page in a notebook had a drawing of what appeared to be an armed fighter with an Islamic State group flag and the words "Come to Ji- had" written in Arabic, ac- cording to the criminal complaint. Also found were draw- ings with arrows indicating where Khan might make border crossings into Syria and mentioning the city of Urfa, which the complaint says is a city in southeast- ern Turkey near the Syrian border. During the FBI inter- view, Khan allegedly said an online source gave him the number of a person he should contact when he got to Istanbul and that, in turn, that person would led him to Islamic State mem- bers. Asked by agents what he would do once he arrived in territory controlled by the Islamic State, Khan alleg- edly said he would — in the words of the complaint — "be involved in some type of public service, a police force, humanitarian work or a combat role." In the letter to his par- ents, Khan also warned in capital letters, "FIRST and FOREMOST, PLEASE MAKE SURE NOT TO TELL THE AUTHORI- TIES," according to the complaint. U.S. Magistrate Judge Su- san Cox ordered that Khan be held at least until a de- tention hearing Thursday. 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