Hezbollah’s secret drug empire
The “Party of God” is funding its arsenal of arms through a global drug trafficking network.
In the years following 9/11, American drug enforcement agents probing Colombia’s cocaine trade were left perplexed by the phone calls they were intercepting. The content of the calls—discussing pickup arrangements, money transfers, staffing issues, and football bets—were not particularly shocking. What stood out, however, was that many of these conversations were being conducted in Arabic.
With the war on terror in its heyday, the phone calls generated significant buzz in top law enforcement circles. Were Colombian cartels collaborating with America’s middle-eastern enemies?
US investigators pulled on the thread, deployed an Arabic-speaking undercover, and over the course of many gruelling years, revealed something incredible: a global network of arms dealers, money launderers, drug kingpins, terrorists, and financial fraudsters, all tied together by the “Party of God”, Hezbollah.
Through “Project Cassandra”, aptly named after the Trojan goddess who was cursed with prophetic visions that were ignored by all, the DEA uncovered numerous connections between Hezbollah affiliates and several South American cartels. Hezbollah members were purchasing massive quantities of cocaine in Latin America and then distributing the product to various criminal syndicates operating in European and American drug markets.
Syndicates alleged to have worked with Hezbollah include Mexico’s notorious Los Zetas cartel, Albanian drug clans, and the Italian mafia, who lost a one-billion-pound Hezbollah-sourced amphetamine haul to Italian authorities in 2020.
The investigation further revealed that hundreds of millions in smuggling proceeds were being laundered each month through a complex process involving Lebanese car dealers in West Africa and a now-defunct Lebanese-Canadian bank. The billions in clean cash were then spent on luxury cars and jewellery in Paris, for social welfare programmes in Lebanon’s south, and on weapons and ammunition to defend Syria’s Assad.
According to the US Department of Justice’s indictment, a Hezbollah associate named Ayman Joumaa was the glue holding together the entire network, bringing in billions to the terror group through his global connections.
Despite Cassandra’s staggering findings, the Obama Administration, intent on making its Iran nuclear deal stick, stifled the operation before any of the major players could be extradited and formally charged. Joumaa, who was first indicted all the way back in 2011, remains at large.
Hezbollah’s efforts in the global drug scene have only intensified since the doomed DEA investigation. As recent reports allege they are one of the main players in the Middle East’s stimulants and marijuana trade and havestrengthened their position in the tri-border area between Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina. This region is notable as it was subject to Hezbollah’s most ambitious and heinous international attack, the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires that killed 85.
Thirty years on and Hezbollah’s international presence is greatly metastasizing. Many of the schemes and structures outlined in Cassandra have been built upon, evidenced by last year’s arrest of one of Hezbollah’s top financiers in Romania on charges relating to money-laundering in Europe and West Africa.
Other outgrowths have created fortunes for the group in recent years, as they’ve played a central role in the $57 billion captagon trade, a massively popular and profitable drug keeping Syria’s Assad regime afloat.
Hezbollah’s leader, Nasrallah, vehemently denies that his “Party of God” is involved in the global, and very un-Islamic, drug trade. Overwhelming evidence points to the contrary, and indicates Nasrallah’s own cousin,Abdallah Safieddine, has overseen the group’s massive expansion as an international drug syndicate.
The billions amassed through the drug trade has augmented Hezbollah’s ability to wage war against Israel and prepare for years of conflict to come. Hezbollah’s “solidarity” strikes on Israel on October 8th kicked off a spiral of violence which has consumed the lives of hundreds and pushes the sides towards total war with each passing day.
Over the course of the renewed northern conflict, Israel has eliminated hundreds of Hezbollah fighters, several senior commanders, and has been responsible for many civilian deaths. Hezbollah has killed far fewer, as Israel’s iron dome has prevented thousands of impacts. However, the Islamist group’s complex drone, rocket, and missile barrages have exacted a notable physical and psychological toll. 28 Israelis have been killed and an estimated 100,000 have been forced to flee their homes. Netanyahu has characterised the situation as “intolerable”.
Despite months of daily conflict, Hezbollah’s arsenal has hardly been tapped. The group fired hundreds of rockets into Northern Israel in the last week alone, killing two Israeli parents and igniting numerous fires. Experts allege that the Islamic group has been fairly prudent thus far and that they still have over 100,000 missiles and rockets at their disposal, including precision guided munitions and ballistic missiles which could threaten Tel Aviv.
As both sides possess immense arsenals and a bitter hatred for one another, a wider confrontation could be disastrous. However, such a conflict looks increasingly likely as all parties are at an impasse. Hezbollah’s leader Nasrallah reiterated his party’s stance this week, stating, “If there is a ceasefire in Gaza then our front will also cease fire without discussion.”
Israel has not agreed to such a halt on its northern border upon a Gaza ceasefire – an improbable feat yet to be accomplished – and has remained insistent on a full Hezbollah withdrawal from the UN demarcation line. Israel’ foreign minister has cautioned that the IDF is now on the verge of conducting “all out war” against Hezbollah.
An “all out war” could carry much greater consequences than even the 2006 conflict, which led to the deaths of hundreds and involved strikes deep into Israel on major cities such as Haifa.
The Hezbollah of today is no longer the same foe of ‘06, and is now empowered by an incredibly sophisticated international network of cells, syndicates, and illicit financial flows. Their pockets are deep, their arsenals are deeper, and their position as a global narco-terrorist organisation has never been so threatening.
 | A guest post by
|