Terrorists' "Other" Illegal Activities

In June 2006 the Congressional Research Service issued a report titled "Trends in Terrorism: 2006." This quote stood out to me:

The report describes a growing overlap between terrorism and international crime. Such a trend, to the extent that terrorists do indeed use the same supply, transport, and money-moving networks used by criminal groups, creates a major vulnerability that can be exploited by law enforcement authorities: the more terrorists engage in non-terror forms of criminal activity, the more likely they are to show up on the law enforcement radar screen and the more likely they are to be subject to arrest and prosecution under a far reaching umbrella of general criminal statutes and more specific terror related laws as well.

The early reporting on the British plane plot indicates that at least some of the would-be bombers made trips to Pakistan and wired money from there. It will be interesting to see whether this group was involved in any other criminal activities. Those activities would present an opportunity for law enforcement