NAC reports detention of those who fund militants of Dagestan and Kabardino-Balkaria

In Novosibirsk, law enforcers have suppressed a bandit grouping, which was engaged in financing Caucasian militants by sending money to Dagestan and Kabardino-Balkaria, said the National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC) of Russia.

According to the Committee, citizens suspected of committing especially grave crimes in November-December 2011 were detained. The grouping planned sabotage actions and attempts on law enforcers with the aim to seize their weapons, the NAC reports.

The NAC has noted that out of the 11 detainees five were members of the so-called "Novosibirsk Jamaat", an extremist organization engaged in financing the bandit armed underground in Northern Caucasus. According to operative data, the detainees were involved in extortions, robbery and banditry, as well as recruited citizens for participating in their illegal activities.

During a search of the detainees, the following was confiscated: five submachine guns, three pistols, two rifle grenade launchers, TNT and plastid explosives and other components for making improvised explosive devices (IEDs), four grenades, two thousand rounds of ammunition, walkie-talkies, laptops, sets of camouflage, the so-called "black flag of jihad" and religious-extremist literature, the "Interfax" reports.

According to Alexander Khloponin, the Russian president's envoy in the North Caucasian Federal District (NCFD), terrorists in Northern Caucasus are financed by frauds committed in Russia. "Unfortunately, all those talks that the bandit underground is now funded from abroad – are just babies' talks. There's no need to run abroad; it's enough to use the loopholes that exist in the NCFD," said Khloponin at a meeting with the staff of the "Rosfinmonitoring" (Russian Federal Agency for Financial Monitoring) for the NCFD.

Earlier, similar information was announced by Andrei Przhezdomsky, an adviser to the chairman of the NAC. "We know that the bandit underground in Northern Caucasus is 'fed' largely not by revenues from abroad, but by local gangsters, racketeering and donations, coming from sympathetic elements," the RIA "Novosti" quoted him as saying.