Hizbullah Drugs Trafficking Hizbullah narco-terrorism few years it has significantly expanded and A growing cross-border threat institutionalized its narcotics logistics and mon- ey laundering enterprises, to the point where it Hizbullah has significantly expanded and institutionalized its drug could soon raise more money from narcotics trafficking enterprises to the point where the group may soon raise more than all its other funding streams combined, including as much as USD200 million it is money through cross-border illicit narcotics activities than all its other believed to receive annually from Iran, accord- funding streams combined. Matthew Levitt investigates. ing to a December 2011 New York Times article. Key Points US prosecutors filed a civil lawsuit in New York Across the Security Zone and Blue Line targeting US and Lebanese businesses allegedly Lebanon was the Middle East’s leading produc- n Hizbullah’s venture into the global narcotics involved in a Hizbullah-controlled global net- er of illicit drugs in the 1970s and 1980s, with industry began in the Bekaa Valley in the 1970s. work laundering millions of dollars in criminal cultivation taking place mostly in the northern The group used well-established drug smuggling proceeds from the US to West Africa, The New Bekaa Valley, according to UNODC figures. In ratlines across the Israel-Lebanon border for oper- York Times reported. Hizbullah issued a state- 1976, when the Syrian military entered Leb- ational purposes. ment denying the allegations on 22 December, anon, senior Syrian officials reportedly rec- saying: “US allegations that Hizbullah is fund- ognized the profitability of Bekaa Valley pro- n Historical drug trading routes eventually grew ing its activities illegitimately is merely another duction and, according to Israeli press reports, and enabled Hizbullah to access Europe from South attempt to tarnish the image of the resistance in increased the proportion of cultivated land ded- America via West Africa across the 10th parallel, Lebanon... after the failure and exposure of US icated to drug production from 10 to 90 per cent known as “Highway 10”. intelligence operations in our country.” in less than a decade. Hizbullah’s involvement Nevertheless, available evidence indicates the in Lebanon’s drug trade was a consequence of n Hizbullah has significantly expanded and group has a long history of using well-established growth in commercial narcotics cultivation in institutionalized its narcotics logistics and money drug smuggling ratlines across the Israel-Leb- the Bekaa Valley that continued throughout the laundering enterprises, to the point where nar- anon border for operational purposes. In the late 1970s. “The civil war virtually destroyed all cotics proceeds are a major funding stream. early-1980s, the group’s ties to drug trafficking other economic fields; however, the production were more peripheral, leveraging criminal con- of marijuana became a key import sector in n 8 August 2012, eight residents of nections and proceeds from the illicit activities of which almost all the ethnic communities and Nazareth and Ghajar (a small town some of its members and supporters in the Bekaa forces involved in Lebanon played a part,” a June O straddling the “Blue Line” demarcating Valley and South America. Over time, Hizbul- 1997 Yedioth Ahronot report noted. Israel’s northern border with Lebanon) were lah leveraged its criminal ties to support oper- In 1978, the Israeli military invaded Leb- charged in an Israeli district court in connec- ational objectives, including trading drugs for anon in an effort to push Palestinian terrorist tion with an attempt to smuggle 20 kg of explo- intelligence from Arab-Israeli (and sometimes groups away from the Israeli border, with forces sives into Israel foiled by Israeli authorities in Jewish-Israeli) criminals and, as the June 2012 reaching as far north as the Litani river. “The early-June 2012, The Jerusalem Post reported. case illustrates, moving weapons or explosives Israeli [1978] invasion was the best thing that According to a spokesman for the Israeli Secu- through drug smuggling networks. ever happened to the hashish business in Leb- rity Agency (Shin Bet), the explosives included While Hizbullah leads the governing coali- anon,” a young Lebanese trafficker told Israeli enough C-4 to wage “a wave of serious attacks tion government in Lebanon and is well known journalist David Oren in the early-1980s. In in Israel”. Israeli authorities cited in media for providing much-needed social welfare sup- 1982, Israeli forces invaded once more, this reports said the explosives crossed the border port to its constituent communities, it has long time establishing a “security zone” along Leba- with the help of a Ghajar residet. The facilita- complemented these public and legitimate non’s southern border with Israel in an attempt tor was known to authorities, both for his ties activities with a laundry list of clandestine and to prevent cross-border attacks. According to to narcotics smugglers and Hizbullah. The criminal pursuits, including acts of terrorism a 1984 study published in the Journal of Pal- explosives were then passed along in a series abroad and raising funds through criminal estine Studies, based on official and unofficial of exchanges between smugglers who Shin Bet enterprises worldwide. Hizbullah’s venture into export data between June 1983 and February believed were smuggling drugs, not explosives. global narcotics (with an overall market val- 1984, Israel officially exported USD60 million The US government claims that Hizbullah is ue estimated by the United Nations Office on in goods to Lebanon over this period. Howev- heavily involved in drugs trafficking and mon- Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to be a USD320 er, unofficial Lebanese exports to Israel were ey laundering schemes, and in December 2011 billion per year) is not new, but over the past an estimated USD400 million, including an

34 IHS Defense, Risk and Security Consulting / September 2012 Hizbullah Drugs Trafficking PA Members of the Colombian Narcotics Division during a raid in Guaviare, Colombia, on 25 January 2012. Lebanese Shia involved in narcotics in Lebanon eventually began to work with criminal associates within the Lebanese Shia diaspora in South America. Ultimately, Lebanon became a transit country for cocaine and heroin, “with Lebanese nationals operating in concert with drug traffickers from Colombia and South America,” according to the 2011 international narcotics control strategy released by the US Department of State. estimated 700 tons of hashish, and half of a ton if the drugs are sold to Western infidels as part ed in 2002. As he stumbled from failed business each of heroin, opium and liquid hashish. of the war against the enemies of Islam.” endeavors to debt to criminal activities, Obeid Following the establishment of Hizbullah in Over time, Hizbullah-linked Lebanese drug grew closer to Mohammed Biro, a one-time the early-1980s – recruiting heavily from key dealers and their criminal associates in Isra- source for Israeli intelligence who later shifted Bekaa Valley tribes and families – it benefited el moved beyond just making money for the his allegiances to Hizbullah. from a religious edict, or fatwa, issued in the group to using the drug trade for operational Obeid and an Israeli named Elhanan Tan- mid-1980s providing religious justification for purposes. A telling example involves an Israe- nenbaum first met as children and their lives the otherwise impure and illicit activity of drug li-Arab named Qais Obeid (thought to be a intersected from time to time as the two grew trafficking. Presumed to have been issued by Hizbullah agent residing in Lebanon, accord- up. Israeli press reports indicate that in the Iranian religious leaders, the fatwa reportedly ing to a 2004 article in The Telegraph. The son 1990s, Tannenbaum was involved with various read: “We are making drugs for Satan – Amer- of a well-connected former deputy mayor of illicit activities, some in partnership with Obeid. ica and the Jews. If we cannot kill them with Taibeh, Obeid ran a jewelry business that went Both men fell into debt through illicit financial guns, so we will kill them with drugs.” Accord- bankrupt, leading him to pursue other mon- dealings with Palestinian money launderers. In ing to an FBI report declassified in November ey making ventures. In 1996, Obeid and Ofer dire need of money, Tannenbaum signed up for 2008, “Hizbullah’s spiritual leader” [the name is Schneitman, a Jewish-Israeli, were arrested on extra reserve duty in the Israel Defense Forces redacted in the declassified report] “has stated charges of conspiring to sell ammunition to (IDF), but maintained connections with Obeid that narcotics trafficking is morally acceptable Palestinians in the West Bank, Haaretz report- and other criminal business partners.

September 2012 / IHS Defense, Risk and Security Consulting 35 Hizbullah Drugs Trafficking

tative achievement and in a complicated secu- rity operation”, The New York Times reported. A special team set up immediately following the abduction quickly determined that Tan- nenbaum had been lured to Europe with the promise of a major drug deal, according to an October 2003 Haaretz report. When Israel withdrew its troops from southern Lebanon in May 2000, Ghajar, a small northern Israeli village, was left in a unique position, straddling the “Blue Line”, the UN-demarcated line dividing Israel and Lebanon, with no fence on the Lebanese side. The open-ended northern side makes it ideal for smuggling and Ghajar has gained a reputa- tion as the main route for drug trafficking. That year, during testimony before the US House Committee on the Judiciary, Frank Cilluffo (then deputy director of the global organized crime program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies: CSIS) noted that despite efforts to curtail drug cultivation in the Bekaa Valley, the region “continues to remain a base of operations for Hizbullah to export narcotics”. He predicted: “With funding from Iran seen to be dwindling, Hizbullah is expected to increase their drug trafficking to fill the void.” In a 2006 briefing with Avi Dichter, the Israeli minister of internal security, in Ghajar (cited by Ynet), an Israeli officer reported: “While we are sitting here, dozens of kilos of drugs are making their way into Israel through the village. Even today Hizbullah is controlling the fence and every- thing [that] goes through it.” Another Israeli official stated: “This is an equation of drugs for

PA terrorism and intelligence.” UN peacekeepers set up a razor wire fence in the Lebanese part of the divided border village of Ghajar, Perhaps the highest profile case occurred in Lebanon, on 10 April 2008. When Israel withdrew its troops from southern Lebanon in May 2000, Ghajar 2002, when IDF Lieutenant Colonel Omar Heib was left in a unique position, straddling the “Blue Line,” the UN-demarcated line dividing Israel and was accused by Israeli authorities of providing Lebanon, with no fence on the Lebanese side. The open-ended northern side makes it ideal for smuggling sensitive military information in exchange for and Ghajar has gained a reputation as the main route for drug trafficking. drugs and money. Heib had served in the IDF for 20 years and was the highest ranking officer Tannenbaum’s dichotomous position made salesmanship. Tannenbaum believed he could from the Bedouin community. Heib, who lost him an attractive target for exploitation. His fre- trust Obeid, and with accumulating gambling his right eye in a road side explosion in 1996 quent business trips to Lebanon put him in con- and business debts, he desperately needed the while pursuing Hizbullah agents, was often cited tact with Lebanese drugs dealers, but the clos- income this new business partnership prom- as the example of the advancement possibilities ing of the Israeli-Lebanese border in 2000 after ised to produce. He departed Israel for Brus- for Israeli-Arabs within the Israeli military. In Israeli forces withdrew from Lebanon made sels in October 2000, believing he was meeting 2002, Israeli military police collected evidence such interactions difficult to arrange and effec- with some of Obeid’s business contacts and was indicating Hizbullah had asked Heib to provide tively ended the business opportunity. Accord- reported missing a few days later. Less than two information on Israeli military deployments in ing to a Jerusalem Post report, Obeid proposed weeks later, Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah the Shaaba area, maps of northern Israel, loca- the two go into business together by leveraging informed a conference in Beirut that Hizbullah tions of tank ambushes, and personal details Obeid’s Arab world contacts and Tannenbaum’s had kidnapped Tannenbaum “in a new quali- on his superior officer Lieutenant General Gabi

36 IHS Defense, Risk and Security Consulting / September 2012 Hizbullah Drugs Trafficking

Azhkenzai, the head of Israeli Northern Com- South America. Ultimately, Lebanon became a mand. Heib was found guilty on 18 June 2006 transit country for cocaine and heroin, “with of supplying sensitive information to Hizbullah, Lebanese nationals operating in concert with and sentenced to 15 years in prison. drug traffickers from Colombia and South America,” according to the 2011 International Narco-trafficking in South America Narcotics Control Strategy report released by Hizbullah’s expansion into the South Ameri- the US Department of State. Growing evidence, can narcotics industry began in the early-1980s it said, indicates that large scale criminal groups but grew significantly in the following decades. largely control drug trafficking in Lebanon. “Drug trafficking organizations based in the “Lebanese citizens with links to these organiza- tri-border area have ties to radical Islamic tions are a major presence among international organizations such as Hizbullah,” according to drug trafficking and money laundering organi- Anthony P Placido, assistant administrator for zations in South America, and are tied into the intelligence in the Drug Enforcement Admin- highest levels of Colombian traffickers moving istration (DEA). “It is important to note that cocaine throughout the world.”

this is not a newly emerging threat per se,” he In the early-1990s, Philip Wilcox (then PA explained during congressional testimony in Department of State co-ordinator for coun- Hizbullah’s expansion into the narcotics March 2010, “but one that has existed at least terterrorism) told a congressional hearing: industry in South America began in the early- since the 1980s or early-1990s.” “We believe that Hizbullah activities, which 1980s but grew significantly in the following Drawing support from the Lebanese dias- include narcotics and smuggling as well as ter- decades. “Drug trafficking organizations based pora in South America, Hizbullah’s footprint in rorism, are supported in the tri-border area.” in the tri-border area have ties to radical Islamic international drug smuggling expanded from According to Michael Braun, former assistant organizations such as Hizbullah,” according to Anthony P. Placido, assistant administrator the Bekaa Valley and the Lebanon-Israel bor- administrator and chief of operations at the for intelligence in the Drug Enforcement der to the southern half of the Western Hemi- DEA, “both Hamas and Hizbullah are active Administration (pictured). sphere. In particular, Hizbullah supporters “ideological sympathizers in South America and and sympathizers entered drug transportation Over time, Hizbullah-linked businesses in Columbia, in the tri-border area the Caribbean continued to provide financial where the borders of Argentina, Paraguay and Lebanese drug dealers and their and ideological support to those and other ter- Brazil meet, and over time in Venezuela and criminal associates in Israel moved rorist groups in the Middle East and South Asia”. elsewhere in South America. While Hizbullah’s beyond just making money for the In the 1990s, much of Hizbullah’s revenue from criminal enterprises, including narcotics, role in drug smuggling and money laundering group to using the drug trade for would grow exponentially over time, Placido ran through a network based in the tri-border revealed during his 2010 congressional testi- operational purposes area headed by Assad Barakat. He was desig- mony that smuggling along the borders of the nated by the US Department of the Treasury on tri-border area had existed since the late-1980s. 10 June 2004, and described in a press release Starting in the 1980s, DEA agents noticed in this [tri-border] region, where it is possible as “one of the most prominent and influential that so-called Lebanese Colombians were to make a profit of USD1 million from the sale members of the Hizbullah terrorist organiza- increasingly involved in moving drugs and of 14 or 15 kg of drugs, an amount that could tion”. Twice in 2001, international authorities money laundering for drug cartels through the be transported in a single suitcase”. raided Barakat’s import-export shop at the port of Barranquilla near Macao on Colombia’s Hizbullah took advantage of the loosely reg- Galeria Page shopping center in Paraguay. Caribbean coast. Some were involved in the ulated tri-border area to participate in a wide Using his shop has a front for his activities shipping business and sidestepped into drugs range of illicit activities and to solicit donations Barakat had conducted counter-intelligence through their involvement in other trade-based from within the region’s sizable Muslim com- and oversaw counterfeit currency operations, money laundering schemes that depended on munities. The Department of State outlined drug running, and more. Assad’s brother and a reliable stream of foreign currency income. global concerns about illicit activity in the region business partner, Hamzi Ahmad Barakat, was Working with the drug cartels provided Hiz- in its 2009 Country Reports on Terrorism: “The designated by the US Treasury in December bullah operatives this revenue stream and Argentine, Brazilian, and Paraguayan govern- 2006. According to a Treasury press release, opened the door to money laundering and ments have long been concerned with arms Hamzi “is a member of Hizbullah in the TBA drugs shipments, according to US law enforce- and drugs smuggling, document fraud, money suspected of trafficking in narcotics, counterfeit ment agents interviewed by this author in 2010. laundering, trafficking in persons, and the man- US dollars, arms, and explosives”. Meanwhile, Lebanese Shia involved in narcotics in Leb- ufacture and movement of contraband goods it added, Barakat’s executive assistant, Sobhi anon eventually began to work with criminal through the TBA [tri-border area].” In its 2011 Mahmoud Fayad, “has been a senior TBA Hiz- associates within the Lebanese Shia diaspora in report, the State Department confirmed that bullah official who served as a liaison between

September 2012 / IHS Defense, Risk and Security Consulting 37 Hizbullah Drugs Trafficking

in Asuncion, Paraguay. Convicted in a Cana- ring”, the Associated Press reported. The sus- dian court of smuggling cocaine from Brazil pects included locals, as well as individuals (the precise details of which are unavailable in from Lebanon, Cuba, Venezuela and Colum- the open source), Kadi escaped from prison in bia. The Dutch prosecution service said in a Canada, possibly with the help of Hizbullah statement released following the arrests that elements. He obtained an American passport the network shipped vast amounts of cocaine under an alias and returned to the tri-border from the Caribbean to the Netherlands, Bel- area, where Brazilian police arrested him for gium, Spain, and Jordan. Others were shipped cocaine possession. He escaped from custody from Venezuela to West Africa and from there again and fled across the border to Paraguay. In onward to the Netherlands, Lebanon and Spain. November 1996, following his surveillance of Profits were invested in real estate in Columbia, the US embassy, police raided his apartment in Venezuela, and Lebanon. Prosecutors asserted: Ciudad del Este, where they found explosives, “The organization has international contacts firearms, counterfeit Canadian and American with other criminal networks that financially passports, and a large quantity of cash. Accord- supported Hizbullah in the Middle East. Large ing to a 2003 Federal Research Division report, sums of money flooded into Lebanon, from

PA he fled from his apartment to Asunción, were where orders were placed for weapons that were In the US Southern Command 2009 Posture Paraguayan police arrested him. Two days after to have been delivered from South America.” Statement, Admiral James G. Stavridis his capture, he was extradited to the US, where The most significant Hizbullah narcotics (pictured) noted that the expanded presence prosecutors were only able to charge him with takedown to date was dubbed Operation ‘Titan’, drug trafficking syndicates in West Africa has simple passport fraud. He was later sent to a two-year investigation of a cocaine smuggling become their “springboard to Europe.” Canada to serve out the remainder of his previ- and money laundering operation in Colombia ous prison sentence. run by a Hizbullah figure named Chekry Harb the Iranian embassy and the Hizbullah com- While Hizbullah is involved in a variety of (who used the alias “Taliban”). According to a munity in the TBA.” A “professional Hizbullah criminal activities, the connection between New York Times investigation, the case began operative who has traveled to Lebanon and drugs and terrorism has grown particularly when agents overheard Harb on wiretaps they Iran to meet with Hizballah leaders,” Fayad strong, especially in South America. Drug rings were running targeting Colombia-based cartel. complemented explicitly militant activities busted in Ecuador in 2005 and in Curacao in In June 2007, an undercover DEA agent met with a variety of criminal enterprises, including 2009 tied explicitly to Hizbullah reveal the Harb in Bogota and learned details about his “illicit activities involving drugs”, among other extent of the organization’s narco-trafficking routes, including one that involved smuggling crimes, according to the Treasury. through South America. cocaine overland to Syria via a Jordanian port. In 2006, the Brazilian Federal Police-led In June 2005, Ecuadorian police broke up At one point, Harb bragged to the undercov- Operation ‘Camel’ resulted in the arrest of a cocaine-smuggling operation run by mem- er agent that he could get 950 kg of drugs into Farouk Omairi – a Lebanese national who had bers of the Lebanese diaspora community Lebanon within hours, prompting the agent to obtained Brazilian citizenship illegally – who who were involved in Hizbullah fundraising casually suggest he must have Hizbullah con- was providing travel support to cocaine smug- activities, The Associated Press reported. From nections in order to operate so freely there. glers, according to Brazilian press coverage. a Middle Eastern restaurant in northern Quito, As the investigation progressed, the under- The arrest was preceded by a US Treasury des- Rady Zaiter headed a drug ring that brought in cover agent got close enough to the cartel to ignation in early-December 2006 of Omairi as USD1 million per shipment of cocaine smug- serve as one of its money launderers. The agent a Hizbullah agent, along with his business part- gled to Europe and Asia. An internal police laundered some USD20 million, enabling the ner Mohammad Abdallah. Aside from procur- report cited in the media confirmed that the DEA to follow the money and map out much ing false documentation for Hizbullah, Omai- operation was connected with Hizbullah. The of the cartel’s operations. But before Harb could ri’s role, according to the Treasury, was regional report added that the network sent upwards of identify his Hizbullah contacts to the DEA co-ordinator for Hizbullah, and involved in 70 per cent of its profits to Hizbullah. Zaiter was undercover agent, the operation broke down, trafficking narcotics between South America, arrested in Colombia in mid-June, and six oth- reportedly due to interagency squabbling, the Europe, and the Middle East. ers were arrested in Ecuador for involvement in New York Times reported. The precise nature of operational ties his network, the BBC reported. The operation Colombian and US agents arrested more between criminal activities and terrorism cases reportedly also recruited airport officials to get than 130 suspects, seized USD23 million, have on occasion only become clear after the their merchandise past airport security check- deployed 370 wiretaps, and monitored 700,000 fact, as was the case following the 1996 arrest of points, according to an Associated Press report. conversations during the investigation. Harb’s Marwan Kadi (aka Marwan Safadi), who was In April 2009, 17 people were arrested in network reportedly paid Hizbullah 12 per cent caught by US agents after conducting surveil- the Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao for of its narco-income. “The profits from the sales lance as part of a plot to bomb the US embassy their involvement in a “Hizbullah-linked drug of drugs went to finance Hizbullah,” Gladys

38 IHS Defense, Risk and Security Consulting / September 2012 Hizbullah Drugs Trafficking

In 2002, Israel Defense Forces Lieutenant Colonel Omar Heib (pictured) was accused by Israeli authorities of providing sensitive military information to Hizbullah in exchange for drugs and money. He was found guilty on 18 June 2006 and sentenced to 15 years in prison. PA

Sanchez, lead investigator for the special pros- ficking in West and Central Africa generates ecutor’s office in Bogota told the Los Angeles The drug trade transformed some USD900 million annually.” Times after the October 2008 arrests. According from a criminal enterprise that some However, the drugs do not originate in Afri- to investigative reporter Douglas Farah, among ca. Crossing the Atlantic along a transit route those reportedly co-operating in this narcotics Hizbullah supporters engaged in that since the early-1900s took shippers along and money laundering enterprise were mem- into an organized fundraising tactic the 10th parallel, aptly named “Highway 10,” bers of the Northern Valley Cartel, right-wing for Hizbullah operatives. Essentially traffickers now move drugs across the narrow- paramilitary groups, and the Revolutionary wherever Hizbullah had operatives or est stretch of ocean between South America Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Despite the and West Africa. In February 2011, US director collapse of the intelligence operation, Harb was supporters, investigators found some of national intelligence James Clapper told the convicted on drug trafficking and money laun- drug connections House Permanent Select Committee on Intel- dering charges and named in July 2009 by the ligence that “drug trafficking continues to be US Treasury, along with several of his associates, a major problem in Africa”, emphasizing “the as a specially designated narcotics trafficker. Smuggling along ‘Highway 10’ emergence of Guinea-Bissau as Africa’s first That such networks are flourishing in the A particularly lucrative means of terrorist narco-state” in an effort to “highlight the scope southern half of the Western Hemisphere is financing, the African narcotics pipeline has of the problem and what may be in store for of particular concern to American officials secured the immediate attention of intelligence other vulnerable states in the region”. because, as former DEA special operations and law enforcement officials around the world. With almost no drug cultivation or produc- official Michael Braun noted during a Wash- In late-February 2012, Yury Fedotov, head of the tion of its own, only the corruption and law- ington Institute forum in July 2008, new hybrid UNODC, informed the UN Security Council: lessness of Guinea-Bissau made it an attractive narco-terrorist networks – like those involving “The West African transit route feeds a Europe- transit route for traffickers of South American Hizbullah in South America and Africa – are an cocaine market which in recent years grew narcotics. Drugs from Brazil, Colombia, and “meaner and uglier than anything law enforce- four-fold, reaching an amount almost equal to Venezuela – and some from elsewhere in Afri- ment or militaries have ever faced”. the US market. We estimate that cocaine traf- ca – pass through Guinea-Bissau en route to

September 2012 / IHS Defense, Risk and Security Consulting 39 Hizbullah Drugs Trafficking

designated Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto, and other places on the [African] continent.” Guinea-Bissau’s former navy chief of staff, and Braun noted that these groups have developed its then current air force chief of staff Ibraima mutually beneficial relationships of conve- Papa Camara, as drug kingpins. nience, testifying: “They are frequenting the In November 2009, an unmarked Boeing same seedy bars and sleazy brothels, and they 727-200 commercial jet mysteriously crashed are lodging in the same seamy hotels. And they in the northern Mali desert some 10 miles from are ‘talking business’. They are sharing lessons a makeshift airstrip. Though completely burned learned, sharing critically important contacts out, the aircraft was suspected by authorities to and operational means and methods.” be carrying a massive shipment of drugs, in a In the US Southern Command 2009 Pos- plane capable of carrying up to 10 tons of nar- ture Statement, Admiral James G Stavridis not- cotics. In the wake of these episodes, American ed the expanded presence of these syndicates in

PA and British diplomats expressed heightened West Africa has become their “springboard to In a speech in April 2009, Interpol secretary- fears about “the prospect of Al-Qaeda and Hiz- Europe”. In January 2010, Der Spiegel reported general Ronald Noble (pictured) acknowledged bullah exploiting the region’s UN-estimated that the previous year, German authorities had that law enforcement efforts “dismantled USD1.3bn-a-year drug trade to fund terror,” arrested two Hizbullah members with ties to cocaine-trafficking rings that used their according to diplomatic cables cited by The Hassan Nasrallah and other senior Hizbullah proceeds to finance the activities of the Guardian in December 2010. officials. According to the report, the two had FARC and Hizbullah, while drugs destined For those investigating the drug trade on trained in Hizbullah camps, but were not arrest- for European markets are increasingly being the ground, the dangers are real. The journal- ed for terrorist or militant activities, rather for channeled through West African countries.” ist Marco Vernaschi recounted being dragged cocaine trafficking on behalf of the group. The out of a Bissau hotel bar by six drunken Leb- October 2009 arrests followed a pitched inves- southern Europe, according to the US Depart- anese. “We all know what the foreign jour- tigation that began in May 2008 when customs ment of State’s 2010 International Narcotics nalists look for in this country,” the ringleader agents at Frankfurt airport seized EUR8.7 mil- Control Strategy report. said. “And I know your name, Marco, so if I see lion in cash and another EUR500,000 during a At least some of this activity involves Hiz- anything published from you that mentions subsequent investigation at the suspect’s apart- bullah and other terrorist groups. According to drug trafficking I will find you, wherever you ment. To their surprise, investigators found a June 2009 Pulitzer Center report citing UN are.” Despite the threat, Vernaschi wrote in the traces of cocaine on the bills along with the and Interpol agency reports, “cocaine traded Winter 2010 edition of the Virginia Quarterly fingerprint of an infamous Dutch drug kingpin through West Africa accounts for a consid- Review, arguing that even considering the gen- who goes by the alias Carlos. erable portion of the income of Hizbullah” erous support the group received from Iran, A dramatic expose of the full scope of both and other terrorist groups. Hizbullah leverag- “most of Hizbullah’s support comes from drug the African drug problem and Hizbullah’s role es Lebanese Shia expatriate communities in trafficking, a major moneymaker endorsed by in it appeared on 26 January 2011, when the US South America and West Africa “to guarantee the mullahs through a particular fatwa”. For Treasury blacklisted Lebanese narcotics traf- an efficient connection between the two conti- a fee, Vernaschi wrote, Hizbullah facilitates ficker Ayman Joumma along with an addition- nents”. Speaking at the 20th Annual Americas drug trafficking for other smuggling networks, al nine individuals and 19 businesses allegedly Regional Conference in April 2009, Interpol including those of the Colombian terrorist involved in his drug trafficking and money secretary-general Ronald Noble acknowl- group FARC. Once shipments arrive at one of laundering enterprise. According to its press edged that law enforcement efforts “disman- the 90 islands off the coast of mainland Guin- release, Joumma’s organization was truly trans- tled cocaine-trafficking rings that used their ea-Bissau, the cocaine is broken down into national in nature, with criminal associates and proceeds to finance the activities of the FARC smaller batches and either sent by fast boat to front companies in Colombia, Panama, Leba- and Hizbullah, while drugs destined for Euro- Morocco or Senegal or trucked in armed four- non, Benin and the Republic of the Congo. But pean markets are increasingly being channeled wheel-drive vehicles across traditional Sahel while his drug ties to South America and his through West African countries”. smuggling routes. terrorist ties to Lebanon were unsurprising, the The drug smuggling threat came into focus “Mark my words,” warned Michael Braun, African narco-terrorism link – and its direct in spring 2007, when two cocaine shipments the former head of the DEA’s Special Opera- connection to the US – served as a wake-up. from South America – each containing around tions division, during a congressional hearing An extensive DEA investigation revealed that 630 kg – were seized in Africa, one in Guin- on confronting drug trafficking in West Africa Joumma laundered as much as USD200 mil- ea-Bissau and the other in Mauritania, Noble in June 2009, “as we speak here today, opera- lion per month from cocaine sales in Europe noted in an earlier speech at the West African tives from Al-Qaeda, Hizbullah and Hamas – and the Middle East through operations Police Chiefs Committee meeting in Ghana perhaps others – are rubbing shoulders with located in Lebanon, West Africa, Panama and in October 2007. By April 2010, the problem Latin American and Mexican drug cartels, Columbia using money exchange houses, bulk had become so endemic that the US Treasury including the FARC, in West African countries cash smuggling, and other schemes, accord-

40 IHS Defense, Risk and Security Consulting / September 2012 Hizbullah Drugs Trafficking

ing to the Treasury statement. Joumma was ation would be impossible without Hizbullah’s able,” explained Bob Clifford, a senior FBI agent charged in November 2011 with conspiring to involvement,” the New York Times reported in who led the Iran-Hizbullah unit at the bureau’s distribute cocaine and conspiring to commit December 2011. headquarters, Newsweek reported. Hammoud money laundering. He remains at large. Thanks to its support networks on both remains at large. Another prominent Hizbullah operative sides of the Atlantic, Hizbullah has a natural The entry of terrorist groups like Hizbullah involved in laundering drug money through advantage regarding Latin American drug into the narcotics trafficking business is large- Africa is Oussam Salhab, according to US offi- kingpins looking to transport their product to ly a factor of border insecurity. Were it not for cials. Court documents citing evidence collect- or through Africa. Long active as cargo aggre- their ability to move product across state lines, ed during DEA investigations identify Salhab gators, Lebanese merchants – including those the narcotics industry might offer more risk as “a Hizbullah operative who, among other with ties to Hizbullah – are well placed to use than it was worth. things, controls a network of money couriers their existing logistical machinery to facilitate At present, the reverse appears to be true. who have transported millions of dollars in cash the movement of other products. From a traf- In June 2010, North Carolina representative from West Africa to Lebanon”. His current sta- ficking perspective, it matters little whether the Sue Myrick sent a letter to US Department tus is unknown but he is believed to be in Togo. product being moved is frozen chickens, ciga- of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary Janet A close associate of Salhab, Maroun Saade – rettes, gasoline, or drugs. Napolitano urging the DHS “to do more intelli- who belongs to the Free Patriotic Movement, a gence gathering on Hizbullah’s presence on our Lebanese Christian group allied with Hizbullah The entry of terrorist groups border”. Myrick was specifically concerned with – ran a separate major drug trafficking organi- Hizbullah’s presence, activities, and connections zation tied to Hizbullah in Africa, according to like Hizbullah into the narcotics to gangs and drug cartels. Ties between Hiz- court documentation. Along with several oth- trafficking business is largely a bullah and drug cartels have grown, especially er defendants, Saade was indicted in February factor of border insecurity. Were along the US-Mexico border, and Myrick’s let- ter quoted Michael Braun as saying: “Hizbullah 2011 on narco-terrorism and other charges it not for their ability to move related to his alleged agreement to sell cocaine relies on the same criminal weapons smug- to people he believed were affiliated with the product across state lines, the glers, document traffickers and transportation Taliban and to transport and distribute Tali- narcotics industry might offer experts as the drug cartel... They work together; ban-owned heroin in West Africa. more risk than it was worth they rely on the same shadow facilitators. One In another case, Saade bribed officials to way or another they are all connected.” close a narcotics investigation into the activi- This may have been news to the public, ties of Imad Zbib, described in US court doc- Conclusion but not to the US intelligence community. uments as “a prominent Hizbullah represen- Over time, the drug trade transformed from a Years earlier, the CIA published a report (since tative in Togo”. According to US officials cited criminal enterprise that some Hizbullah sup- declassified in April 2012, with the origi- in these documents, Zbib is a close associate porters engaged in into an organized fundrais- nal date of release redacted) on Expanding of Salhab and has transported loads of two to ing tactic for its operatives. Wherever Hizbul- Links between Alien Smugglers and Extremist: three metric tons of cocaine from South Amer- lah had operatives or supporters, investigators Threats to the United States. The declassified ica to Togo, concealing the hauls in used cars found some drug connections. For instance, report noted: “Travelers associated with var- purchased through lots he owns and transport- in November 1999, according to Philippine ious terrorist groups – including Hizbullah, ing the drugs to Europe for sale. intelligence reports, authorities arrested Pandu Hamas, and the Egyptian Islamic Jihad – are Operatives like Ayman Joumma and Ous- Yudhawinata at an airport in Manilla when dog tapping into global alien smuggling networks sam Salhab appear to have been in the right units discovered drugs in his checked luggage. to abet their movements around the world, place at the right time. As demand for narcot- Philippine intelligence had been tracking Pan- including to the United States.” ics increased in Europe and the Middle East, du the previous month, and had intended to Those networks now offer Hizbullah, as well South American cartels started looking for new follow him to gather further information and as other terrorist groups and drug trafficking routes to these growing markets. One route intelligence on his cohorts and other activities. organizations, the potential to raise massive went to Europe through West Africa, while His arrest derailed those plans. amounts of money through narcotics traffick- another passed through Syria and Lebanon. In 2006, Imad Hammoud, a Lebanese ing and money laundering. n The Middle East route benefited from Hiz- immigrant from the Detroit area of Michigan, bullah’s ties to Iran and Venezuela. According was indicted along with 18 others in a Rack- about the author to Lebanon’s drug enforcement chief, Colonel eteer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Matthew Levitt directs the Stein Program on Adel Mashmoushi, one way drugs were sent (RICO) case on charges that Hammoud and Counterterrorism and Intelligence at The Wash- to Lebanon was on board the weekly Iran Air his conspirers bought more than 90,000 coun- ington Institute for Near East Policy and is the flight from Venezuela to Damascus and then terfeit Viagra pills imported from China over author of the forthcoming book Hizbullah: The overland by trucks to Lebanon. Discussing this a three-month period. “They’re small, they’re Global Footprint of Lebanon’s Party of God. route, US officials stressed that “such an oper- high in demand and they’re easily transport-

September 2012 / IHS Defense, Risk and Security Consulting 41