Friday, July 4, 2008

Tamil Tiger Mafia, a major threat to French society - French author Jerome Pierrat

Unveiling the underworld activities of the Tamils in France and their close links with the LTTE, French author Jerome Pierrat has said "Tamil mafia works in hand-in-glove with the Tamil Tigers in their campaign to extort money from unwilling Tamil citizens in France and the mafia gangs keep a percentage and pass on the ransom collection to Tamil Tigers".

In his latest best-selling book on French criminal gangs titled 'Mafias Gangs et Cartels: La criminalite internationale en France' (Mafias, Gangs and Cartels - International criminality in France), J‚r“me Pierrat said that the fund raising activities of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is continuing with active collaboration with Tamil criminal gangs such as Mukkapola, Minnale, Viluthu and Vennila in France.

"These gangs use various arm-twisting to third degree methods to instill fear into those Tamils in France who are unwilling to pay money to the LTTE. Their methods are effective and petrified Tamils, in fear of their lives or the lives and limbs of their kith and kin in LTTE controlled areas in Sri Lanka, simply pay up," the author said.

Pierrat, who has a doctorate from University of Sorbonne has used contacts ranging from underworld figures, hardcore LTTE terrorists, potential suicide bombers, and police and intelligence personnel in his fact finding drive: "My methodology is to get information, follow the leads, make personal contacts with mafia gangs and finally cross check and double check before arriving at the written version," Pierrat explained.

Been an expert field researcher on terrorism who has written a book on the Hezbollah after several meetings with Hizbollah members, the author said that Tamil Tigers have mastered the terror tactic of suicide bombing more than any other militant group.

"Furthermore, while studying the mafia gangs in Paris I came across the Tamil gangs and their overt and covert links with the LTTE"," Pierrat said in an interview.

"I have found out that Tamil Tigers hire these gangs for their fund raising, extortion and blackmailing acts for ransom. I feel that French society should know about criminal activities on their soil and also about the persons who are behind these criminal activities," he added.

Courtesy : Government Information Department

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