Word: smugglers
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Mahmood the smuggler nods up the desert highway toward Iran's mountainous border with Pakistan and Afghanistan. He suspects that many of his Arab passengers are members of al-Qaeda fleeing the authorities. "I don't care who you are. Even if you're a criminal, I'll take you, as long as you've got the money," he says, revving up his Toyota...
Indeed, before the week was out, rumors began to surface that suspicious items were already being offered for sale in Iran and Europe. One Iraqi antiques dealer recounted how he was awakened at dawn last week by an art smuggler saying he had Japanese clients who were very interested in buying anything from the plundered museums and wanting to know if the dealer had access to such booty. "I couldn't believe it," the dealer says. "The war was barely over, and this vulture was trying to profit from our defeat. I called him a pimp...
...hundred yards beyond the last Pakistani outpost at Koh-i-Taftan, a dirt track veers off the main road toward a side door into Iran. It's strictly Smugglers Only. According to traders at Koh-i-Taftan, getting through it requires hiring an adam farosh--a smuggler who has the connections to bribe an Iranian border guard. Sultan Mohammed, 24, a shopkeeper, says, "Many Arabs left Pakistan for Iran from this point. Sometimes, once or twice a week, you'll see a lone Arab being escorted into Iran." Knowing the Americans are looking for Arabs, the Iranian border guards charge...
...vicinity, he remained in the mountains around Ribat Qila. A five-year drought has emptied the area, and abandoned mud houses litter the wasteland. Sometimes I'd see a 4-by-4 parked outside an isolated house, and my guide would tell me it probably belonged to a smuggler. Who knows? It could easily have been al-Qaeda...
...intelligence agents carrying satellite phones and bags full of gear arrived at the nearby Pakistani town of Quetta, capital of Baluchistan province. At the same time, persistent reports, denied by Administration officials, came in of a gunfight involving two of bin Laden's sons close to Ribat, a smuggler's crossing in the far west of Baluchistan where the borders of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran meet...