The U.S. Treasury Department has opened an investigation into why and how Toyota vehicles are getting into the hands of ISIS, (ISIL or Islamic State).
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“We briefed Treasury on Toyota’s supply chains in the Middle East and the procedures that Toyota has in place to protect supply chain integrity”, Toyota executive Ed Lewis explained.
The global terrorist group in Syria and Iraq, ISIS, relies on a fleet of Toyota pickup trucks on their front lines.
Toyota is “committed to complying fully with the laws and regulations of each country or region where we operate and require our dealers and distributors to do the same”. We are supporting the U.S. Treasury Department’s broader inquiry into worldwide supply chains and the flow of capital and goods in the Middle East.
The medium-sized Toyota Hilux are the most stolen vehicle in the past two years by far in Sydney, and authorities believe they are being quickly shipped Turkey in containers, and then into Syria to be used by Islamic State soldiers, according to News Corp reports on Friday.
Toyota vehicles are showing up in ISIS’s propaganda videos – and many of them are brand new models.
For their part, Toyota said they don’t sell cars to people who might use them for “paramilitary or terrorist activities”.
“This is a question we’ve been asking our neighbors”, he said.
There are procedures in place to prevent vehicles from being diverted for unauthorized military use, but Toyota says it’s impossible to control channels through which vehicles may be misappropriated or resold by third parties. “How could these brand new trucks… these four wheel drives, hundreds of them- where are they coming from?”
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The Treasury Department would not comment about which companies it has sought information from but said there is an ongoing effort to understand ISIS financing.
