Counter-terror officials in the Unites States have asked Toyota, the second leading car manufacturer in the world, to help them determine how ISIS has managed to acquire the large number of Toyota trucks that are seen in their propaganda videos.
Toyota officials say they do not know how ISIS obtained the vehicles, but the company is fully supporting the inquiry led by the Terror Financing Unit of the Treasury Department.
The unit is part of a broad U.S. effort to prevent Western-made goods from ending up in the hands of the terror group.
“We briefed the Treasury on Toyota’s supply chains in the Middle East and the procedures that Toyota has in place to protect supply chain integrity,” said Ed Lewis, Toyota’s Washington-based director of public policy and communications.
Lewis also said that Toyota has a strict policy not to sell vehicles to purchasers who may use them for terrorist or paramilitary activities. He added that it is impossible for the company to track vehicles that have been stolen or have been bought and resold by middlemen.
Toyota Land Cruisers and Toyota Hilux pickups, an overseas model similar to the Toyota Tacoma, are prominent fixtures in ISIS propaganda videos. Their truck beds are usually loaded with heavy weapons and cabs jammed with terrorists.