Warwickshire mother facing jail over plan to join terror group in Afghanistan
A 36-year-old mother has been found guilty of two counts of engaging in conduct in preparation for terrorism after planning to travel to join the affiliate of the so-called Islamic State in Afghanistan, Isis-K.
Farishta Jami, from Stratford-upon-Avon, was convicted at Leicester Crown Court on Thursday on charges brought under section 5 of the 2006 Terrorism Act relating to her conduct between September 2022 and January last year.
Warwickshire Police said the court heard Jami was planning to travel to Afghanistan 'to martyr herself' and had saved £1,200 to pay for one-way flights to Afghanistan for herself and her children.
Jami had shared graphic and violent extremist material on social media, posting videos, documents and images as well as participating in multiple group chats and channels that support the so-called Islamic State.
Police said she had also researched weaponry and gathered information relating to the assembly and disassembly of an AK-47 rifle.
Commenting on the case, the head of specialist operations for Warwickshire Police, Superintendent Darren Webster, said: 'This was a complex case interlinking terrorism and serious criminal offences, and we welcome the outcome today.
'Jami's actions had the potential for real-world implications and the harm they could have caused cannot be underestimated.
'Thankfully, with excellent partnership working between West Midlands Counter Terrorism Police and ourselves, we were able to prevent this.'
Jami is due to be sentenced on Friday.
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Scottish Sun
17 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
I'm the Machine Gun Preacher who Gerard Butler played in film – here's how I survived ISIS and 10 assassination attempts
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A HOLLYWOOD star who gave up being a drug dealing bikie is now fighting ISIS through the dripping jungles of central Africa. The Machine Gun Preacher is on a mission to rescue child sex slaves on the continent - and is has come up against the notorious terror group. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 11 Sam Childers in South Sudan Credit: Caters 11 The Machine Gun Preacher is on a mission to save children Credit: Caters 11 Childers was played by Gerard Butler in the Hollywood film Credit: Alamy The priest, real name Sam Childers, is battling ISIS in the Congo as he continues his holy war to save abused children. He's famously known as being the inspiration behind the movie Machine Gun Preacher. The film starred an A-list cast of Gerard Butler as Childers, Michelle Monaghan as his wife, and Michael Shannon. Machine Gun Preacher told the story of how Childers came to be fighting in Africa after growing up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Once a criminal, he found God, turned his life to charity work in Africa and dedicated himself to saving children. Machine Gun Preacher - the film - showed him battling Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army in 1997. Now he's released a self-made documentary - trying to raise money to take the fight to ISIS in Congo. He said: "I'm not worried about dying. I'm 62 years old. The last thing I worry about is dying. I worry more about living than dying." After being hammered in the Middle East, ISIS turned to Africa and is now enslaving thousands of children as its militants rampage through impoverished areas. Childers has a network of orphanages, schools, and farms set up across the centre of the continent. I fought ISIS in Syria & I know bloodthirsty thugs are plotting comeback after fall of Assad - Europe must be ready, says Brit fighter But he's come into combat with ISIS as they have expanded into Congo. He said: "We don't want to see our children be kidnapped, sold in prostitution. "We don't want to see none of that so I'm willing to do whatever I have to do... and I'm willing to answer for it. "They are murderers. They're killers. 11 ISIS has brutally used child soldiers to fight its was 11 Childers said he has battled other groups like M23 Credit: AFP 11 ISIS in West Africa - where it is strongest in the continent "I'm not afraid of none of them." Some 5.4million people have been killed in Congo's ongoing conflicts since 1998 - but the wars have gone largely ignored in the West. Three children were beheaded by rebel fighters in February and dozens more killed when they took a village. Childers' belief in God has given the preacher the strength to keep fighting - even against militant Christian groups. The Lord's Resistance Army raped and abducted girls, mutilated them, and enslaved boys into being child soldiers. He said: "I've been ambushed over 10 times. Been in over 10 major battles. They tried to assassinate me over 10 times. "That's just in the Kony War." Despite the gun battles, Childers says that he was in more danger while a bikie and drug dealer in America. 11 Childers has been working in Africa since the 1990s Credit: Caters News Agency 11 Childers became a heroin addict and bikie in his youth but turned his life around Credit: Caters News Agency He said: "I fought in guerrilla warfare, or been in war over 25 years, and I never was shot in Africa. "I was shot once and stabbed 3 times in America." Childers said the soldiering was a means to an end - supporting the good work his organisations do through orphanages and farms. "What you got to realize those rescues and to be active in stuff like that costs a lot of money. "I have a lot of children and orphanages and children's homes that got to be taken care of." Now, he runs a private military company in Congo that works with local forces to try and save children. Childers said many of the children he rescued were severely mentally damaged by their time spent in captivity. He said: "They cannot be kept in a normal orphanage with other children until after one year. "That's if the people believe they're doing well. That's doing the mental evaluations." 11 Childers and Butler -- who played him in the 2014 film Credit: Photoshot 11 Michelle Monaghan and Butler in the Machine Gun Preacher film Credit: Alamy 11 Childers first fought in East Africa against the Lord's Resistance Army Credit: Alamy But Childers revealed that he preferred to work with children rather than adults, saying they could work through the mental challenges they faced from being victims of rape or violence. But it's not just ISIS that his charities are fighting, with disease and hunger also continuing to kill children. Childers said: "So then we feed over 10,000 meals a day. The majority of the children we feed only eat one meal a day, and that's the meal we're feeding them." Now, the preacher has released a new film trying to raise money for his work. "Our goal is to do a hundred 1,000 downloads by the end of this year and that money's used for children, man, you know. And so, instead of telling everyone, hey, send me $20. "We're asking everyone. Look, you want to hear a good story. You want to hear a good story of redemption. You want to hear a good story of saving people's lives. You want to hear a good story of giving all." Becoming the Machine Gun Preacher Childers was born into a difficult household with a heroin addict mum and drunkard dad. They were always Christians, but in his teens Childers got in with the wrong crowd, he said. "I started doing what they were doing to fit in, smoking cigarettes, smoking marijuana. "12 years old: drinking, eating pills. "13, 14 years old: snorting cocaine. "Then, at 15 years old, I woke up one morning, and here I got a heroin addiction. You know, I'm shooting up cocaine, shooting up heroin." Childers quit school and said he turned himself into one of the biggest drug dealers in Grand Rapids, running narcotics from all over the US. He said: "The only good thing was my dad brought me and my brothers up to be hardworking people. "I always held a job, even though I was a cocaine addict heroin addict. "But I made a lot of money selling drugs." Childers said he always believed in God, but "I thought I had everything I needed. "I had money. I had drugs, guns, women motorcycles." But then in his early 20s, Childers got into a bar fight that was so awful it changed the course of his life. "There were big guys, tough guys laying on the floor crying, holding their guts in. And I said that night, if I get out of here, I'm I'm done living this life." His charity work has seen Childers honoured with the Mother Teresa Memorial International Award for Social Justice in 2013.
The Guardian
19 hours ago
- The Guardian
Looted from Syria, sold on Facebook: antiquities smuggling surges after fall of Assad
They come by night. Armed with pickaxes, shovels and jackhammers, looters disturb the dead. Under the cover of darkness, men exhume graves buried more than 2,000 years ago in Syria's ancient city of Palmyra, searching for treasure. By day, the destruction caused by grave robbers is apparent. Three-metre-deep holes mar the landscape of Palmyra, where ancient burial crypts lure people with the promise of funerary gold and ancient artefacts that fetch thousands of dollars. 'These different layers are important, when people mix them together, it will be impossible for archaeologists to understand what they're looking at,' said Mohammed al-Fares, a resident of Palmyra and an activist with the NGO Heritage for Peace, as he stood in the remains of an ancient crypt exhumed by looters. He picked up a shattered piece of pottery that tomb raiders had left behind and placed it next to the rusted tailfin of a mortar bomb. Palmyra, which dates back to the third century BC, suffered heavy damage during the period of Islamic State control, when militants blew up parts of the ancient site in 2015, deeming its ruins apostate idols. Palmyra is not the only ancient site under threat. Experts and officials say the looting and trafficking of Syria's antiquities has surged to unprecedented levels since rebels overthrew the former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in December, putting the country's heritage further at risk. According to the Antiquities Trafficking and Heritage Anthropology Research Project (ATHAR), which investigates antiquities black markets online, nearly a third of the 1,500 Syrian cases it has documented since 2012 have occurred since December alone. 'When the [Assad] regime fell, we saw a huge spike on the ground. It was a complete breakdown of any constraints that might have existed in the regime periods that controlled looting,' said Amr al-Azm, a professor of Middle East history and anthropology at Shawnee State University in Ohio and co-director of the ATHAR project. The collapse of Syria's once-feared security apparatus, coupled with widespread poverty, has triggered a gold rush. Located in the heart of the fertile crescent where settled civilisation first emerged, Syria is awash with mosaics, statues and artefacts that fetch top dollar from collectors in the west. In one post on Facebook in December, a user offered a pile of ancient coins for sale. 'I have been holding them for 15 years, Free Syria,' the user wrote. Katie Paul, a co-director of the ATHAR project and the director of Tech Transparency Project, said: 'The last three to four months has been the biggest flood of antiquities trafficking I have ever seen, from any country, ever.' Paul, along with Azm, tracks the route of trafficked Middle Eastern antiquities online and has created a database of more than 26,000 screenshots, videos and pictures documenting trafficked antiquities dating back to 2012. 'This is the fastest we've ever seen artefacts being sold. Before for example, a mosaic being sold out of Raqqa took a year. Now, mosaics are being sold in two weeks,' said Paul. Syria's new government has urged looters to stop, offering finder's fees to those who turn in antiquities rather than sell them, and threatening offenders with up to 15 years in prison. But preoccupied with rebuilding a shattered country and struggling to assert control, Damascus has few resources to protect its archaeological heritage. Much of the looting is being carried out by individuals desperate for cash, hoping to find ancient coins or antiquities they can sell quickly. In Damascus, shops selling metal detectors have proliferated while ads on social media show users discovering hidden treasure with models such as the XTREM Hunter, which retails for just over $2,000 (£1,470). Others operate as part of sophisticated criminal networks. A local archaeological watchdog in the city of Salamiya, central Syria, filmed a video while walking through the bronze age-era settlement of Tall Shaykh Ali, where uniform 5-metre-deep holes dug by heavy machinery pockmarked the ground every few steps. 'They are doing this day and night. I am scared for my safety, so I don't approach them,' said a researcher with the watchdog in Salamiya, speaking anonymously for fear of reprisal from criminal looting networks. Other cases show entire mosaics removed intact from sites, the work of experienced professionals. Once out of the ground, antiquities make their way online. Experts say Facebook has emerged as a key hub for the sale of stolen antiquities, with public and private groups offering everything from ancient coins, entire mosaics and heavy stone busts to the highest bidder. The ATHAR project provided the Guardian with dozens of screenshots and videos of Syrian antiquities, including mosaics and Palmyran busts, being sold on Facebook groups. A single Facebook search of 'antiquities for sale Syria' in Arabic yielded more than a dozen Facebook groups dedicated to the trading of cultural artefacts, many of them public. In a March video from a Facebook group, a man with a Syrian accent displays a mosaic depicting Zeus on a throne, using his mobile phone for scale. The mosaic is still in the ground in the video, but later surfaces in another photo, removed from the site. 'This is just one of the four mosaics we have,' the man brags. In other groups, looters have gone on Facebook Live from archaeological sites, asking users for advice where they should dig next and drumming up excitement from potential buyers who tune in. In 2020, Facebook banned the sale of historical antiquities on its platform and said it would remove any related content. However, according to Paul, the policy is rarely enforced despite continued sales on the platform being well documented. 'Trafficking of cultural property during conflict is a crime, here you have Facebook acting as a vehicle for the crime. Facebook knows this is an issue,' said Paul. She added that she was tracking dozens of antiquities trading groups on Facebook that have more than 100,000 members, the largest of which has approximately 900,000 members. A representative from Meta, the parent company of Facebook, declined to respond to the Guardian's request for a comment. The Facebook groups are used as a gateway for traffickers, connecting low-level looters in Syria to criminal networks that smuggle the artefacts out of the country into neighbouring Jordan and Turkey. From there, the pieces are shipped around the world to create fake bills of sale and provenance so they can be laundered into the grey market of antiquities. After 10 to 15 years they make their way into legal auction houses, where collectors and museums, primarily located in the US and Europe, snap them up. With 90% of Syria's population living in poverty, stopping desperate individuals from looting is a gargantuan task. Instead, experts have said that the responsibility for regulation should fall on the west, which is the primary buyer of the Middle East's cultural antiquities. 'How do we stop this? Stop the demand in the west,' Azm said. 'Until the security issue improves, you won't see an improvement. We focus on the supply side to abrogate the responsibility of the west.' In Palmyra, Fares is still coming to terms with how much his home town has changed since returning in December after years of displacement. Broken stones lie at the feet of the Roman-era Arch of Triumph and the carved faces of sarcophagi in the Tomb of the Three Brothers have been gouged out – all a product of IS iconoclasm. At night, he and other residents stand guard in the ancient city, determined not to let looters steal what remains of a place already plundered by 15 years of war.
Scottish Sun
a day ago
- Scottish Sun
Ross Monaghan: From Glasgow street thug to running with global cartel bosses
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) EIGHT years ago Ross Monaghan was lucky to escape after an attempt on his life in broad daylight. But last weekend, the Lyons senior gang member was shot dead along with Eddie Lyons Jnr in a brutal hit in Fuengirola, Costa del Sol. 6 Ross Monaghan was shot dead along with Eddie Lyons Jnr in the Costa del Sol Credit: Alan MacGregor Ewing - The Sun Glasgow 6 The pair were shot in a horror gangland bloodbath at Monaghan's Irish bar in Fuengirola 6 A masked gunman shot Lyons Jnr dead outside the pub before turning his attention to Monaghan Credit: Les Gallagher - The Sun Glasgow Monaghan had a £250,000 price tag on his head over a feud with the Spanish drugs cartel linked to the south of England, it's been claimed. Sources say threats had been made in the months leading up to Saturday's double execution, but it wasn't the first time that someone had tried to kill Monaghan. In January 2017, it was just like any other day in the Glasgow area of Penilee as parents took their children to school. But little did they know there was a gunman lying in wait with a kids buggy which had a firearm in it. The gunman honed in on target Monaghan and fired two shots, one hitting him in the shoulder, the other missing. Monaghan was wearing a bulletproof vest at the time and quickly fled to Spain following the attack. Mark Richardson and Martyn Fitzsimmons were both tried then cleared of the gangland hit on Monaghan at the time. Monaghan had previously been cleared of killing Kevin 'Gerbil' Carroll after a judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to convict him. The Gerbil was a feared Daniels clan enforcer known for extreme violence to anyone who got in his way or crossed him. Carroll's earliest brush with the law came in 2004 when he was charged with attempted murder. The FULL story of Scotland's biggest gangster Jamie 'The Iceman' Stevenson Coming This Sunday He was accused of shooting John Madden, a pal of Eddie Lyons Snr, with an AK-47 but the case later collapsed. Carroll, who was from Milton, then made the headlines in 2006 when he was hit in the stomach in a drive by shooting. Four years later, Carroll and associate Ross Sherlock were hit at 10pm one evening as they stood talking to others at the roadside in Bishopbriggs next to their BMW X5 - a favourite set of wheels for criminals at the time. Nobody has been charged with that crime which left Carroll fighting for his life in Glasgow Royal Infirmary under the guard of armed police. The Gerbil was then shot dead in the Asda car park in Robroyston in January 2010 in an attack that took just 25 seconds. A car pulled up just before 1.30pm, two gunmen got out and fired 13 shots into the back of The Gerbil's Audi A3 as stunned shoppers looked on. Monaghan was arrested in July that year and put on trial for the gangland hit but he denied all charges against him and lodged a special defence of incrimination against eight people. The trial collapsed due to insufficient evidence. 6 The Gerbil was shot dead in the Asda car park in Robroyston in January 2010 Credit: Universal News and Sport (Europe) 6 Monaghan was arrested in July that year and put on trial for the gangland hit but he denied all charges Credit: PA:Press Association Eddie Lyons Jnr, Stephen Lyons and Ross Monaghan all grew up in Milton. In 2000, the Lyons family had infiltrated a publicly funded community centre in the area. They took control of the Chirnsyde Community Initiative which received over £1.4million in taxpayer funding and turned out to be a front for organised crime and laid the groundwork for a bloody feud with the rival Daniel Crime Clan. Eddie's father ended up in the dock after he admitted racking up more than a quarter of a million pounds in mortgage frauds by giving lenders fake income details. In April 2016, Eddie Jnr and Monaghan later appeared before the same court but were cleared of a vicious street attack on three men outside a bar in East Dunbartonshire which took place in April 2016. But the trial collapsed when two of the alleged victims said they had no memory of what happened to them. After the attempt on his life outside the school in Penilee, Monaghan fled to Spain and he struck up a relationship with the Irish Kinahan crime cartel. Monaghan is said to have been instrumental in building an alliance between the Lyons family and the world's most wanted gang when he boldly approached godfather Daniel Kinahan several years ago. He formed a relationship with the global mob boss that has prevailed ever since, giving the Lyons extra power and control over Scotland's illegal drug trade. Former top cop Graeme Pearson said: 'Monaghan started out as a young man trying to make his way in his business and would have to be trusted to do that. 'He was part of a group which became known for extreme violence. Monaghan going on trial for murder and being acquitted through lack of evidence proved his bottle to the gang. 'Then he was shot at and survived. He earned his stripes in that world. "And it all becomes part of a growing criminal CV. But people like Monaghan make enemies everywhere.' Pearson says he tried to warn of the threat posed by super cartels 20 years ago. He said: 'The South Americans realised their relationship with America was breaking down. Their drugs and money were being seized and they started looking for another business plan. 'Europe was ready and waiting for cocaine. The nation states had lowered their borders, so moving between them became very easy. 'The only problem was getting the product in. It started with West Africa, then Spain and then the Dutch ports. 'Gangs from all over Europe, which had previously been involved with other types of drugs, sex trafficking and theft, all became interested. 'Glasgow gangs were involved in shoplifting jewellery and gold and had contacts in other countries who were willing to buy and sell. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the authorities to pay much attention.' 6 Monaghan boldly approached godfather Daniel Kinahan several years ago Credit: The Sun Monaghan's links with the Kinahan cartel Irish Sun crime editor Stephen Breen, who wrote the book Kinahan Assassins along with colleague John Hand, knows all about the Irish crime cartel. He revealed that Ross Monaghan came up while the pair were doing research for their book. Stephen said: 'Ross Monaghan had cropped up in terms of someone who had connections to Thomas 'Bomber' Kavanagh. 'He's now serving time for drug trafficking but it shows you the Kinahan reach, the tentacles are spread far and wide. 'We were doing research for the book and his name came up in terms of having meetings around 2016-2017 with the Kinahan organisation. 'The Kinahan organisation had a branch in the UK, and the CEO of that branch was Thomas 'Bomber' Kavanagh. 'He was meeting individuals from Glasgow, from Liverpool, from Birmingham, from London and it was all about the wholesale trafficking of drugs into the UK. He added: 'You always have organised crime groups calling on their associates, calling on their resources and their contacts across Europe for help if a gangland war takes place. 'It's very possible that this could happen on this occasion although the Kinahans have been fairly decimated by the investigations of the Irish authorities and targeting those who were prepared to take up the gun on their behalf.' Last Saturday, Monaghan was watching the Champions League final with Eddie Lyons Jnr in his own bar in Fuengirola when the pair were shot in a horror gangland bloodbath. A masked gunman blasted Lyons Jnr dead outside the pub before turning his attention to Monaghan, who was shot several times as he tried to scramble for cover. Terrified customers and staff hid under tables and chairs and it's believed Monaghan may have had a £250,000 price tag in his head over a feud with a Spanish drugs cartel linked to the south of England. Spanish cops were able to ID executed Monaghan and Eddie Jnr as they 'knew them well'. Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay remembers watching Monaghan in court as he tried to dupe jurors into believing he was a 'smart, besuited and respectable young man'. The ex-crime reporter said: 'This was a complete fiction. He was a dangerous drug-dealing, gangland thug. 'It's usually the case in this world that foot soldiers end up in prison or dead. 'You would think the penny might drop that those ordering and directing the drugs and violence are often left counting the money. 'The Spanish authorities and Scottish counterparts should be asking themselves how on earth a drug-dealing thug and known member of a major international drugs gang appeared to have the ownership of a prominent business which quite literally had his name above the door? 'A guy like that should never have had the ability to put his name on assets for which the only source of their funding has been drugs."
