WASHINGTON, Aug 12: US authorities are monitoring hundreds of Muslims, specially Arabs, who own small businesses across the United States for possible links between criminal scams and funding for militant groups overseas, The Washington Post reported in Monday editions.

More than 500 businesses, mostly convenience stores, are targeted in a probe of petty scams that authorities believe are generating tens of millions of dollars a year for terrorist organizations, the daily said, citing federal officials.

The scams include skimming the profits of drug sales, stealing and reselling baby formula, illegally redeeming huge quantities of grocery coupons, collecting fraudulent welfare payments, swiping credit card numbers and selling unlicensed T-shirts, the report said.

The investigation is part of a broad inquiry launched after the Sept 11 attacks and involves hundreds of investigators who have been deployed to pursue the plots, according to the newspaper.

Investigators are searching for similarities in the convenience stores’ financial practices and how they transfer money to determine whether their activities are centrally directed, the Post reported.

Authorities said a US customs service supercomputer programme has been diverted from analysing the flow of drug money to tracking “terror funds”, a move that led to raids on Pakistani operators of jewellery kiosks in seven states, the newspaper said.

Federal officials were quoted as saying investigators allege that some of the money has gone to groups that support Palestinian suicide bombing, including Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The FBI does not think the domestic schemes under investigation were used to finance the Sept 11 suicide hijacking attacks. —Reuters