SOUTHLAND TERROR LINK? BACA: LOCAL SYMPATHIZERS MAY BE FUNNELING FUNDS TO AL-QAIDA, TALIBAN.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

Sheriff Lee Baca said in an interview with the Daily News that he is ``very concerned'' about Taliban sympathizers in Los Angeles County providing funds to the al-Qaida terrorist network.

Baca, recently appointed by Gov. Gray Davis to head a statewide anti- terrorism computer system for law enforcement agencies to share intelligence, said he has no evidence of local sympathizers planning violence.

``I am very concerned about Taliban sympathizers, and I know that there are those individuals who are in that frame of mind, and it concerns me,'' Baca said Thursday.

``One can't guess how many Taliban sympathizers there are, but I keep on hearing from my Arab-American community constituents that there are these people out there. That doesn't constitute a crime, but it certainly is cause for alarm.''

Salam Al-Marayati, spokesman for the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles, said Baca's comments came as a surprise and that he was not aware of anyone in the county raising money for the Taliban.

``There is no central office you can send money to,'' he said. ``It's pretty much decentralized and a fractured group at this point. If there is any kind of fund-raising efforts, we would definitely like to know who is doing that and where it's originating from.

``Obviously, this has nothing to do with the mainstream Muslim community. In terms of what is happening at the mosque, there is no sympathy for the Taliban. It came to power by oppressing other Muslims. The Muslim community is critical of and against the Taliban.''

Sheriff's Sgt. John P. Sullivan, head of the department's early-warning group on terrorism, said task forces made up of local, state and FBI investigators are probing Taliban sympathizers in the region as well as fund-raising or financial scams they may be involved in.

``This type of activity has traditionally occurred in Los Angeles County,'' Sullivan said. ``We are investigating to determine the extent of it.''

Sullivan said the United Nations Drug Control program estimates that $1 billion of illicit capital circulates daily in the world's financial institutions supporting international organized crime and terrorist organizations.

``There is a nexus between transnational organized crime and terrorism,'' he said.

He said groups carrying out fraud and scams to raise money for terrorist organizations usually don't commit violent terrorist acts in the same locations.

``Conducting terrorist operations in one area erodes popular support and erodes their ability to collect funds,'' Sullivan said.

On Friday, FBI officials said an investigation into a group accused of raising money at Los Angeles International Airport to fund anti-Iranian terrorism activities has led German authorities to charge five people with defrauding that government of millions of dollars.

FBI agents in Los Angeles, working with counterparts in Germany, said they uncovered fraud targeting social service programs along with money laundering schemes while investigating the Mujahedeen Khalq Organization of Iran, known as MEK. The schemes cost the German government as much as $10 million.

The group is listed by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organization.

Seven members of MEK were arrested in Los Angeles in February on suspicion of soliciting money from travelers at LAX that was used to fund terrorist activities. Their trial is set for February in federal court in Los Angeles.

FBI Agent Matthew McLaughlin said the case illustrates the variety of ways terrorist supporters raise money.

``It will take some time to determine the breadth and width of the problem here in Los Angeles County,'' McLaughlin said.

``We are in the very early stages of investigating al-Qaida members and Taliban sympathizers. The complexities of the MEK case will serve as a model of how many of these groups supporting terrorism will in the end be found to operate.''

McLaughlin said FBI agents in Afghanistan might find leads that will help the agency determine how al-Qaida operates and funds itself.

``Those investigations could take some time before indictments are brought,'' he said.

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