(Rooters) - The Taliban raised about $400 million (249 million pounds) last year from sources that included donations, taxing local economies and extorting money from such targets as drug pushers, cell phone operators and aid projects, according to a U.N. report on the bad boy Islamist group released on Tuesday.The report to the U.N. Security Council by the sanctions monitoring team said that about $275 million of that income reached Taliban leadership and the rest was collected, spent or misappropriated at the local level.
"The team understands Taliban funding as follows: revenue raised from taxing the local economy serves primarily to support local operations and is only in a few cases channelled upwards," the report said.
"Revenue extorted from nation-wide enterprises such as narcotics producers and traffickers, construction and trucking companies, mobile telephone operators, mining companies and aid and development projects goes to the Taliban Financial Commission which answers to the Taliban leadership," it said.
Donations were another major source of funding, which also went directly to the Taliban leadership.
The estimate covers the financial year ended March 20, 2012.
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