March 26, 2016: Spain recently revealed that three containers of “second hand clothing” being shipped to an unidentified Middle Eastern country were inspected in Spain and found to contain 20,000 military camouflage uniforms for ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant). Efforts to prevent ISIL from obtaining weapons and military equipment has to deal with the fact that much material is obtained via legitimate sources and then mislabeled before shipping it to smugglers in Turkey or Iraq who, for a large fee, will sneak it into ISIL territory. This led Spain and other European nations that ship a lot of non-military goods to the Middle East to inspect more containers to find contraband. This includes containers of “humanitarian aid” as smugglers have long used such shipments to hide contraband in.

Spain had additional help in finding the uniforms (which were not made in Spain) from a February 2016 arrest of seven Spanish citizens suspected of obtaining and shipping goods to ISIL. Interrogations and captured documents provided a lot of useful leads on ISIL smuggling and Spain expects to do a lot more damage to ISIL smuggling efforts via Spain.