[url]http://www.msnbc.com/news/792892.asp?0dm=C16ON[/url]

excerpt:

“It wasn’t until after September 11th that we understood the magnitude of the [terrorist] fundraising from our own shores,” said John Forbes, a former U.S. Customs Service official who directed a financial crimes task force in New York. “We were always looking to catch the big rats” in terror financing, he added. “But in looking for rats, thousands of ants got by.”

The groups move their money, officials say, by every conceivable conveyance, including wire transfers of less than $10,000, the figure that banks must report to federal authorities; by money-belted couriers; by suitcase and trunk; and by envelopes of cash sent through Federal Express, DHL Worldwide Express and UPS courier companies.  


      In the past [b]eight months[/b], the Customs-led Operation Green Quest has seized $16 million in currency and monetary instruments such as cashier’s checks that were being sent out of the country illegally. Although some of the money is related to the drug trade and other criminal activity, officials traced much of it to bank accounts in Lebanon and elsewhere that were directly controlled by Hezbollah.