Berlin truck attack terrorist Anis Amri used several different identities to claim multiple welfare checks simultaneously in different cities around Germany.
Amri, the Tunisian refugee who killed 12 and injured 48 at a Christmas market in Berlin Dec. 19, is being investigated for fraud after authorities discovered the scheme, Der Spiegel reported Thursday. The investigation was closed in November because Amri’s whereabouts were unknown.
Police further revealed that Amri searched the Internet for ways to create bombs and for means to contact Islamic State cells. Counter-terrorism officers discussed Amri as a potential terrorist on at least seven occasions and twice classified him as an “unlikely” person to carry out an attack.
Welfare is a common way for terrorists to fund their activities in Europe. Five men involved in the terror attacks in Paris in 2015 and Brussels in March lived on welfare while plotting the attacks. (RELATED: Men Behind Terror Attacks in Paris, Brussels Lived On Welfare While Planning Attacks)
The five terrorists collected a total of $56,000 in welfare, far more than the estimated cost of $37,000 to carry out both attacks.
The Danish government recently discovered that 36 people who joined ISIS in Syria and Iraq received unemployment payments long after leaving the country.
“It is totally unacceptable and a disgrace. It should be stopped,” Employment Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told newspaper Ekstrabladet.
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