ISIS jihadis claim £400k in BENEFITS while fighting West in Syria and Iraq

French police made the discovery after investigating ISIS funding from across Europe.

The Criminal Brigade in Paris and other European security services unearthed more than £1.8million worth of payments to ISIS fighters between 2012 and 2016. 

A staggering £400,000 of that came from France. 

At the height of the scam, detectives estimate about a fifth of the 700 French nationals who left the country to join the jihadis continued to fraudulently claim welfare payments for unemployment, housing, income support and family allowances. 

Their investigation also revealed intelligence failings and how social security failed to carry out thorough checks.

Most European ISIS members are from France, followed by Germany and the UK.

An investigator told French newspaper Le Figaro: “Relatives used identity papers with photos to claim money from social security offices for family allowances on their behalf and then transferred the funds to the in the combat zones, mainly via Turkey.”

Last year at least 420 fraudulent welfare withdrawals were made.

The investigators said that there were 190 people involved in making the money transfers from the French side, and 210 people collecting the money on the other side.

Since the revelations were made, police have started sharing information about those receiving the money, so that they can be removed from the lists of the welfare groups. 

Cutting off the jihadists flow of money has been one of the “strengths” of anti-terrorism work, claims Le Figaro.

In August it was revealed that 271 jihadi militants had returned from Iraq and Syria and all of them are subject to investigation by public prosecutors.

That number included 54 minors, with some of them in detention, Gerard Collomb said in an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche.

French military interventions overseas have exposed the country to attack by Islamist militants at home. 

Gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 people in and around Paris in November 2015 and over 100 were killed in other Islamist attacks in France in the past two-and-a-half years.

Mr Collomb said the threat of militant attacks was “very high”, citing two incidents targeting police on Paris’ Champs Élysées and seven foiled plots so far this year.

He said an increasing number of people were being flagged under a preventative monitoring system for radicalised behaviour, with more than 18,500 people reported.