A report by the European Law Enforcement Agency (Europol) found that the FARC consider Europe to be an “area of strategic interest” for its drug trafficking operations and procurement of arms.
The report on terrorism in the European Union released on Wednesday said, “The FARC has identi?ed Europe as a main area of strategic interest in its ambitions to expand its activities. Making use of its contacts in Europe, the FARC has sent representatives to some Member States. Their tasks include the dissemination of information and the creation of clandestine cells to facilitate drugs tra?cking and the procurement of arms.”
The report went on to say that the FARC is “planning to open an office in Amsterdam, Brussels or Paris.”
The report, whose focus is on terrorist activities in the EU in 2009, highlighted that while no FARC members were arrested in the EU for “terrorism-related offenses… A Swedish national was kidnapped by the FARC in Colombia in May 2007 and released on 17 March 2009.”
According to the report, Europe is “important for ?nancial and logistical support” not only to the FARC, but also to other foreign terrorist organizations, such as “the PKK [Kurdish separatist group from Turkey] and the LTTE [Tamil Tigers rebel group from Sri Lanka].”
The FARC have also been accused of trying to seed ideological and political support in Europe.
In January, it was reported that the FARC was trying to open a Bolivarian “embassy” in Europe, according to intelligence documents received by Colombian newspaper El Tiempo.
The report claims that the FARC’s alleged foreign minister, Rodrigo Granda, wrote in an email that, “it is important to mobilize a significant number of young people, that the organizations in Denmark, Switzerland and France can help us to invite university students and leaders and groups of leftist youngsters.”