The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), has seized a large number of items linked to LTTE fund-raising, after raiding the Montreal office of the World Tamil Movement, it was revealed after the Federal Court unsealed relevant documents, the Canadian 'National Post' reports.

According to sources, these premises had been raided earlier as well. A judge authorized the search after police officers noticed collection tills and items bearing the Tamil Tigers emblem inside the building. The building had been emptied of all such materials during a 2006 police raid.

"Some of those items are similar to the ones seized on April 13, 2006, and indicate that the same type of activities [are] still going on in the building in 2008," according to a police affidavit filed in the court.

The search is the latest development in a massive terrorist financing investigation that spans three provinces and is trying to unravel a network the RCMP says has raised millions to arm the Tamil Tigers.

The World Tamil Movement (WTM) purports to be an ordinary community group, but the newly unsealed police affidavit says it is actually a "foreign branch" of the guerrillas, used to collect money from Canadian Tamils to finance the civil war and the purchase of arms.

RCMP Constable Eric Boissonneault wrote in the affidavit that the "sole purpose" of the Montreal WTM office was "facilitating" the cause of the Tigers. He also accused the group of using aggressive fundraising methods.

"Our investigation has revealed that the World Tamil Movement and the LTTE have been demonstrated to utilize pressure tactics to elicit funds and donations as well as to participate in veiled threats," Const. Boissonneault wrote in the affidavit.

Steven Slimovitch, the lawyer representing the WTM, said he had only just received the new documents and had not fully reviewed them. "There's not much that I can say other than to maintain the standard line of saying that they don't raise money for terrorists."

The police investigation, known as Project Crible in Quebec and Project Osaluki in Ontario, began in 2002. The RCMP's Integrated National Security Enforcement Team raided the WTM office on Van Horne Avenue in Montreal in 2006.

The federal government padlocked the building six months ago after a judge ruled it was the property of a terrorist organization. But while police were seizing the premises, officers noticed it held "a number of objects related to the LTTE." Police went to court on Aug. 14 to ask for a warrant to seize those items.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day added the WTM to Canada's official list of banned terrorist organizations on June 16. It was the first time a Canadian non-profit group had been outlawed for terrorism. Mr. Slimovitch said his clients intended to challenge the designation but have not yet done so.

A former senior commander of the Tamil Tigers, Colonel Karuna Amman, told the National Post in an interview in Colombo last month that Canada was the guerrillas' top source of external income, followed by Switzerland.

Courtesy : National Post- Canada