Thirteen people suspected of funding an Algerian terrorist organization were arrested near Paris this week, according to news reports.
Those charged are believed to be involved in the smuggling of counterfeit clothing between France and Italy; authorities believe that the revenue from the illicit trade funded the radical Islamist group Alhijra Waltakfir.
200,000 euros worth of counterfeit clothing as well as large sums of cash and false identification documents were seized in the crackdown, according to the Algerian daily Le Matin.
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Two weeks earlier, a similar operation targeted the same network in Italy. This week’s operation was reportedly a joint effort by the French and Italian police forces.
Alhijra Waltakfir means condemnation and migration in Arabic.
The phrase has been the namesake of several radical Islamic groups founded since the 1970s in Egypt, Morocco and other countries, though it is unclear whether they are related. Members of these cells have been known to live in reclusion, denounce infidels and dedicate themselves to Spartan lives modeled after those of the founders of Islam.
The Algerian incarnation of Alhijra Waltakfir is believed to be associated with the notorious terror organization GIA (Armed Islamic Group), itself a splinter faction of the wider Islamist anti-government movement in that country, the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS).
In a related story, the head of GIA, Rashid Abu Turab, was arrested on Thursday near Algiers, according to the French news station TV5.
Islamic groups have been entrenched in violent conflict with the secular Algerian state since the early 1990s.