ABSTRACT
The post-11 September 2001 ‘war on terrorism’ stimulated growing international attention to the illicit drugs business as a source of terrorist financing. ‘Narcoterrorism’, a contentious term, has become a catchword for politicians and the media. It effectively replaced an earlier term, ‘narcoguerrilla’, applied by US administrations to the links between drugs business and left-wing rebel movements in Latin America in the 1980s and 1990s. In contemporary use the term has acquired a new, Islamist dimension through the association of narcotics and groups such as the Taliban, al-Qa’ida and the neo-Taliban.
