11/06/2015 - Being able today to determine a univocal and certain definition of terrorism, and everything that concerns it, is a very difficult practice. The same doctrine, in fact, strongly debates in this sense: in the international context, these acts are generally recognized as activities and behaviors that bring strong instability to the system and that must find an adequate sanction by national legal systems.

A fundamental issue that is placed in the context of repression against terrorism is represented by the contrast to the financing of such activities, closing the entry flows means in fact removing the oxygen and thus preventing the expansion of the phenomenon. To this end the Italian legislator, with the legislative decree 22 June 2007, n. 109, defines the financing of terrorism as "[...] any direct activity, by any means, to the collection, funding, intermediation, deposit, custody or disbursement of funds or economic resources, in any way realized, intended to be, in all or in part, used for the purpose of carrying out one or more crimes for the purpose of terrorism or in any case aimed at favoring the fulfillment of one or more crimes for the purposes of terrorism envisaged by the Penal Code, and this regardless of the actual use of funds and of the economic resources for the commission of the aforementioned crimes."

One of the biggest problems in combating this funding is the fact that terrorist organizations also use legitimate sources and legitimate channels, posing particular difficulties for the prevention action. Terrorism, in general, moves on two fronts: one national and one foreign, and currently we distinguish between the non-confessional and the religious matrix of the phenomenon.
The first type is that often we tend not to want to identify with the term "terrorism" because of the fact that just calling that phenomenon with its real term poses a strong sense of anguish. No newspaper has in fact identified with the term of terrorist acts the events that took place in Milan on the day of the inauguration of Expo2015, or high celebrated episodes passed to the honors of national news. Yet this is clearly a domestic terrorism fueled by the current socio-economic context characterized by a strong precariousness, a now uncontrollable illegal immigration and a usual challenge to the achievements of great works. In these contexts the associations of the anarcho-insurrectionalist area - such as the Informan Anarchist Federation and the International Revolutionary Front - move forward as organized into a vertical structure that, through informal groups and self-managed basic autonomous units, direct action or immediate and destructive attacks against the state and capital.

Today, however, the most important evolution of the terrorist threat is certainly represented by movements of Islamic religious origin that are also witnessed within the national territory, as is apparent from the intelligence activities conducted since the end of the years' 90 to 2007 and which have unearthed a branched network of al-Qaeda-affiliated cells in order to detect and prepare militants. The central Pakistani structure has experienced a progressive decline that has contributed to a proliferation of regional affiliated organizations - such as AQMI, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, AQAP, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, AQI, al-Qaeda in Iraq - or with an ideology that is not different from one another - it is the case of ISIS and Boko Haram. All these entities find a primary source of affiliation from the web through which massive propaganda is implemented, which aims to proselytize both the population of the territories within which these organizations branch off, and between Muslims in the West.

From 2007 the activities of investigation and repression, also in our area, began to focus on micro-cells that apparently do not have specific links with the main structures but often rely on the Internet. Today, the jihadist threat in Italy moves in parallel with the situation of geopolitical evolution of North Africa and the Middle East - especially with regard to Syria - and to the increasing diffusion of the Salafi movements and extremism home grown, that is, Muslims born or raised in the West.

The numerous surveys conducted to date have revealed the existence of various ways of sustaining terrorist causes. As said at the beginning, the contributions are made through illegal activities but also lawful. Among the latter, the proceeds deriving from the exercise of business activities regularly constituted and operating in various economic sectors, donations made by Muslims to charitable or welfare agencies, of which a distorted use of part of the sums was pointed out, and were found, and the remittances of the emigrants who sent part of their earnings to support their families in their country of origin. These last activities are carried out through the use of specific activities money transfer that have the ability to transfer even large sums of money in all areas of the world and at low costs. Acceding to these regular intermediaries there are also the Informal Value Transfer Systems, para-banking systems that constitute the alternative to the official channels for the handling of money and that can therefore easily manage even illicit proceeds. These are service companies that, without the specific authorizations, are privileged by immigrant workers without a residence permit - who therefore would not be able to comply with the rules on the identification of the person who arranges the financial transaction - and who offer the their performance on relationships based on a necessary trust that arises from the need to operate only in that mode.

Illicit activities, on the other hand, respond to a rather wide riverbed: from drug trafficking to the facilitation of illegal immigration, from counterfeiting of trademarks to the exploitation of irregular labor, from illegal collection of bets to the illegal exercise of financial activities. Another area in which the funding takes place to these organizations is represented by illegal immigration, the receipt of counterfeit documents and the receipt and confirmation of the brands.

In this context, the primary need is to identify the subject who orders transfers, a need which is difficult to wait for in the event that there is no active collaboration with the financial and banking sector in a context of prevention and which is implemented through the imposition by the State of obligations to identify, register and report suspicious transactions. The practical analysis of the reconstruction of the different pieces apparently lacking in relevant information content, in the general framework could prove essential for understanding terrorist financing but also for identifying leaders and members of the individual groups.

Funds can be collected in two contexts. Those recovered in the Italian territory may remain there - to feed terrorist activities that develop in the Nation [even if this mode is more similar to terrorist associations of anarchist-insurrectionist "local" nature rather than Islamic terrorism] - or to be transferred abroad , through money transfer o cash courier, to contribute to the consolidation of networks in other countries.

The other side of the coin is represented by the reverse process, that is the entry of funds collected abroad into Italy. In this case it is rare that the recipient of the proceeds is an individual terrorist: it is generally an organization active on the national territory. This modus operandi is less usual in Italy, since on the one hand, all flows are mapped in a highly effective form, and on the other hand it is easier to find resources already within the system. A final financing hypothesis is represented by foreign motion, that is from foreign sources that produce resources that feed terrorism abroad. This is the case that sees financing to jihadist organizations.

Four financing hypotheses materialize: funds found in Italy and transferred to organizations in the country, funds found in Italy and transferred abroad, funds found abroad and transferred to Italy and funds found abroad and transferred abroad. Of these possibilities the preventive and repressive action of the Italian authorities can be exercised only on the first three, the fourth requires indeed synergistic actions at the international level.

Once the suspicious flow has been traced, it is necessary to verify the material existence of the causal link between the money transfer and the economic support to the terrorist association, especially if the funds migrate abroad. Most often the financier does not cover up the resources allocated to terrorism but hides or conceals the last end.

Nicolò Giordana