A FORMER jihadi bride says she knows where ISIS has hidden more than ￡20 million in gold amid fears the terror group intends to use the stash to fund new horrors.
The mother-of-one, who has not been named for her own safety, was previously married to at least two high-ranking members of the organisation and is currently being held in a Syrian prison camp.
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ISIS fighters are claimed to have buried ￡20m worth of gold in a desert Credit: Alamy
She revealed in a series of messages to journalist and filmmaker Andrew Drury that she knows where the gold is, but feels “no one is listening to her”, The Daily Express reports.
Her shock revelations seem to corroborate those once made by a relative of killed ISIS kingpin Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
A cousin by marriage of the terror boss, Mohammed Ali Sajet, told Al Arabiya News in 2019 how he and other leaders would bury millions of pounds worth of looted money, gold, and silver in the desert.
Andrew Drury, author of the book Trip Hazard, said his source was well known in Islamic State circles as she had not come from either the US or Europe, as many other converted women had.
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He said the former ISIS bride historically had relationships with people including the ‘Beatles’, a murderous group named after the pop band because of their British accents, that killed hostages.
Drury told The Express: “She was mixing with the likes of the Beatles and the hierarchy of ISIS, she was married to at least two high-ranking fighters during the war.
“ISIS looted everywhere they went so it makes sense they could have taken gold and money and stashed it in the desert when things started going wrong for them.
“The last message I had from her was telling me, ‘I want to tell someone about the gold hidden by ISIS in Syria’. She says she knows where it is, but she feels no one is listening to her.”
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The woman was reportedly concerned that other former ISIS brides were being allowed to leave the prison camp and return to their Western countries because they were “lying” about what they had done.
Drury said: “She believes she is being punished because she is trying to tell the truth about what happened under ISIS, but the other girls are lying and being sent home.
“My source has told me ‘a lot of dangerous women’, as she puts it, ‘who did really bad things’, are being accepted back by various governments because they are not telling the truth.”
He also mentioned his contact had observed former British ISIS bride Shamima Begum, who Drury once slammed for showing “no remorse”, while at the camp.
He said: “My source says Shamima has become a recluse now, she doesn’t want to speak to anyone anymore.”
Drury travelled to Syria six times in 2021 and 2022 to speak with Begum and other prisoners for controversial BBC podcast ‘I’m Not a Monster’, when she said she knew the public saw her “as a danger” but she was “so much more than ISIS”.
He previously told The Times of Begum: “She sees herself as a victim now but she told me quite clearly it was her choice to go [to Syria] and she went of her own free will.
"She is a narcissist. She wants to be a somebody. Now she sees herself as a celebrity.”
The ten-part podcast aired as she awaited a ruling on her appeal against the Home Office’s decision to remove her British citizenship, which was later denied.
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Shamima Begum was interviewed by filmmaker Andrew Drury at the Al-Roy prison camp in northeast Syria Credit: Richard Ashmore/ Magnus News