Police seize £250,000 of cash intended to fund Isis at Manchester Airport and north-west ports
Officers claim supporters were attempting to get the money to Syria
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Police have seized £250,000 in cash intended to fund Isis from supporters attempting to travel to Syria.
Using powers under the Terrorism Act, the money was confiscated by officers from the North West Counter Terrorism Unit, the BBC reported.
In some cases, passengers at Manchester Airport were caught carrying tens of thousands of hidden under their clothing or stashed in hand luggage.
Around 90 per cent of the money was found at the airport on passengers flying to Turkey, who officers suspected of intending to transfer it over the border to Syria.
The rest was found other sea and air ports in north-west England.
The figures date from between April 2013 and March this year, as Isis started its bloody advance through Iraq after establishing a base in Syria during the country’s civil war.
Isis is believed to be one of the richest terrorist groups in history, at one point reportedly earning around £1.8 million a day through oil smuggling, extortion, theft and human trafficking.
Police and intelligence agencies around the world are attempting to choke its funding.
Detective Chief Superintendent Tony Mole, head of the North West Counter Terrorism Unit, told the Manchester Evening News: “Terrorists need money to fight. At the Turkish border with Syria there are shops where you can buy guns, boots, rations and if you are going out there to fight you need money and you want equipment.
“We take that cash away from people, not only stopping them from buying weapons and funding terror organisations which are a threat to the UK and an international threat but we also disrupt that person.”
Details of money seized after April or at other British air and sea ports have not been released.
More than 500 British militants are believed to have travelled to Iraq and Syria to join Isis, which is waging a bloody war to establish a hardline Islamic caliphate.
The group currently controls an area of both countries larger than the UK, including Mosul, Raqqa and other major cities.