in 2011-2012, co-founder andrea crosta spent 18 months in kenya, concealing his identity and meetingh ivory traffickers whom he says were brokers for the terrorist group al shabaab. >> then actually, the traffickers described to us how they organized the pick-up in this no man's land al shabaab or al shabab emissaries were coming over with the technical, you know, the pickups with their own scale. paying cash, always punctual to the point that some of the traffickers told us that back then al shabaab was a preferred customer because no tricks, no games, paying cash and disappear. >> reporter: government sources confirm a connection between wildlife trafficking and terrorist groups. a 2013 white paper from the us government's directorate of national intelligence describes how poaching threatens security in africa. demand for rhino horn and ivory so outpaces supply, and is so lucrative, that criminal elements of all kinds, including some terrorist entities and rogue military officers, are becoming involved in countries across east, central, and southern africa. the u.s. government and