PARIS, March 21: French gendarmes say they seized several boxloads of documents during a surprise morning raid on Wednesday at the Cannes residence of Yeslam bin Laden, half-brother of Osama bin Laden.

The search was undertaken by the crack Brigade de Recherche of the Gendarmerie Nationale, based at Nice, and on the orders of Judge Renaud Von Ruymbecke, who reportedly believes that Yeslam bin Laden and the family holding company SICO play a more important role in the financing of international terrorism than Yeslam has so far accepted to admit.

According to the sources, “this is only the start of a vast investigation, but it’s also the first time that the French judicial system decides to attack the question of the financing of international terrorism.”

The decision to undertake the investigation comes in the wake of a conclusion arrived at by the French finance ministry that several subsidiaries controlled by SICO in France appeared to be laundering money.