ISIS banker who ordered kidnaps, arranged cash for terror attacks & managed stolen £1.5billion fortune arrested in Iraq

THE ISIS banker who ordered kidnaps, arranged cash for terror attacks and managed their stolen £1.5billion fortune has been arrested in Iraq.

Sami Jasim Muhammad al-Jaburi was captured by security forces in "one of the most difficult" raids they have ever executed, Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi announced.


Jasim – who had a $5million bounty on his head – was detained after a "complex external operation".

The ISIS finance chief and the late Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi's right-hand man was brought to Iraq from another country, intelligence sources told AP.

He was identified as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in September 2015, with a multi-million dollar reward offered for information on his whereabouts by the US treasury department.

Jasim was a wanted man due to his "instrumental" role in managing the radical group's finances to fund terror operations and fuel their sick plots.

The terror chief kicked off his jihadi career in 2014 when he served as the ISIS finance minister as they took hold of Iraq.

The militants mercilessly looted military supplies and banks as they captured the nation's second-largest city, Mosul.

It left them with a fortune of more than £1.5billion – that was handled by Jasim.

A senior Iraqi intelligence official told the Guardian they had meticulously chosen their power players like Jasim to head their operations as they were painfully diligent.

"They had itemised everything down to the smallest detail," the source said.

At the time, they controlled a vast territory which they took advantage of to create some cash flow opportunities.

Between demanding ransoms from kidnapped foreigners, extorting locals in Iraq and Syria, taking priceless antiquities and smuggling fuel – ISIS quickly became financially firm.

They also had a stash of gold and currency estimated by independent experts to total to around `£300million.

Jasim raked in revenue from running the "oil and gas, antiquities, and mineral resources operations" for ISIS.

BANK OF ISIS

The extensive cash flow from taking charge of oilfields in eastern Syria alarmingly left the terror group with limitless capabilities.

Their resident banker Jasim went on to serve as the deputy leader of ISIS under Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, who detonated a suicide belt as US forces closed in on him in northwest Syria in 2019.

Millions of the blood money they acquired over the years was also invested in legitimate businesses, including housing companies, hotels and automobile dealerships, officials said.

But it is thought the money man's capture may now scupper the jihadi's ability to recover after their territory in Iraq and Syria drastically dwindled.

They also have to cover expenses related to governing their territory as well as salaries and maintenance.

The announcement comes just days after ISIS claimed responsibility for a mosque attack in Kunduz, Afghanistan that killed at least 46 people.

Iraqi's were also eagerly awaiting the results of early elections when the news broke.

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