Islamic Sate is involved in a complex international trade in which it sells priceless ancient artefacts to the Calabrian Mafia, the 'Ndrangheta, in return for arms, according to Turin daily newspaper La Stampa.
Posing as a rich private collector from Turin, experienced La Stampa reporter Domenico Quirico met with a Calabrian "emissary" in the Lloyd Hotel, south of Naples.
His interlocutor then took him to a meat-processing plant outside the city, where he was shown photographs of priceless artefacts, including a second-century statue of an unidentified “emperor”, which was offered to him for €60,000.
Mr Quirico's interlocutor, seemingly a member of the 'Ndrangheta, said the statue had been pillaged from a Unesco world heritage site, Leptis Magna in Libya, a site that has been controlled by Islamic State, the jihadi faction also known as Isis.
Ancient artefacts not only from Leptis Magna but from sites such as Cyrene and Sabrata are reportedly shipped from the Islamic State-controlled port of Sirte in Libya to Goia Tauro in Calabria, a port much used by the ‘Ndrangheta for the importation of cocaine and arms.
Islamic State fighters are then said to trade the pillaged ancient Roman and Greek statutes for arms, including Kalashnikov rifles and rocked-propelled grenade launchers.
Illicit arms
Given that illicit arms trading has long been a cornerstone of Mafia activity, Italian investigators suspect that both the ‘Ndrangheta in Calabria and the Camorra in Naples are selling weapons to Islamic State.
In a scenario that sounds like a James Bond film gone awry, this complex trade in arms, drugs and artefacts almost certainly also involves Russian and Chinese criminal organisations.
The Libyan artefacts are alleged to travel to Goia Tauro on Chinese merchant ships, while the arms sold to Islamic State arrive in Calabria via Ukraine and Moldova, courtesy of the Russian Mafia.
Mr Quirico claims that clients for the stolen artwork come from Russia, China, Japan, the United Arab Emirates and the US. He said most American clients withdraw from negotiations when they learn that their money ends up buying arms for Islamic State.
Confirmation of La Stampa's investigation came this week from interior minister Angelino Alfano.
“The ‘GDP’ of the so-called Islamic State comprises a number of factors,” Mr Alfano told reporters, “but an important one is the sale of those works of art that managed to escape the iconoclastic fury of Isis militants.”