ISIL's Toyota fleet

In what must still be a branding nightmare for Toyota, the prevalence of ISIL to wantonly parade around in Toyota branded vehicles must have been more than a little disconcerting. The Hilux was so popular with Daesh fighters that it has become a central fixture of the ISIS brand strategy. Whilst ISIL is all but defeated in Syria and Iraq, the splintering of terrorists to other areas especially in the Asia-Pacific region impacts us all.

The utility vehicle is fast and maneuverable packing plenty of firepower with a 50-calibre weapon mounted on the rear easily defeating soldier's body armour and penetrating lightly armoured vehicles such as the American built Humvee. The United States authorised a probe into Toyota to determine its sales strategy to terrorist organisations, a serious international business like Toyota wouldn't jeopardise its international reputation for what is relatively minor sales; however, they could be doing more to track the third party sales though.

It is fair to ask, how is ISIL getting its hands on new Toyota vehicles? One expects brokers are buying vehicles and forwarding them to the fighters; however, as every component is stamped with a serial number, it isn't difficult to trace the distribution channel and then shut down the broker/buyer. Toyota has a very strict policy preventing buyers purchasing their vehicles with the intention of para-military use or for terrorism. This supply chain is no doubt sophisticated and new vehicles are getting through; combined with the durability of the product and the availability of spare parts - this vehicle is perfect for their activities. This needs to be shut down and shut down quickly.