The profits often support terrorist groups , drug cartels , people smugglers and street gangs . The FBI has found evidence that a portion of the financing of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing came from a store selling counterfeit T-shirts . The same has been found surrounding many other organized crime activities . According to Bruce Foucart , director of US Homeland Security 's National Intellectual Property Coordination Centre , the sales of counterfeit goods funded the Charlie Hebdo attack of 2016 in Paris , which left 12 people dead and nearly a dozen more injured . Sales of pirated CDs have been linked to funding the 2004 Madrid train bombing , and investigations firm Carratu connects money from counterfeit goods to Hezbollah , Al Qaeda , the Japanese Yakuza , the ETA , and the Russian Mob
1993 World Trade Center bombing
1993 World Trade Center bombing
Counterfeit consumer goods