1️⃣ The terrorist gangsters : Hezbollah's Organized Criminal Enterprises in Europe
The terrorist gangsters : Hezbollah's Organized Criminal Enterprises in Europe
The terrorist gangsters : Hezbollah's Organized Criminal Enterprises in Europe
2️⃣ Hezbollah's Organized Criminal activity in Europe over the past few years exposed a return to violent operations being conducted by the notorious Iranian-supported Lebanese Shiite group known for drug, arms and human trafficking and running large scale criminal organizations
3️⃣ Hezbulla's activities in Bulgaria and Cyprus led to a rigorous debate among European Union member states over whether or not to ban the organization’s military wing. But this only marks Hezbollah’s return to violent operations in Europe.
Hezbulla's activities in Bulgaria and Cyprus led to a rigorous debate among European Union member states over whether or not to ban the organization’s military wing. But this only marks Hezbollah’s return to violent operations in Europe.
Hezbulla's activities in Bulgaria and Cyprus led to a rigorous debate among European Union member states over whether or not to ban the organization’s military wing. But this only marks Hezbollah’s return to violent operations in Europe.
Hezbulla's activities in Bulgaria and Cyprus led to a rigorous debate among European Union member states over whether or not to ban the organization’s military wing. But this only marks Hezbollah’s return to violent operations in Europe.
4️⃣ Hezbollah has long used Europe as a staging ground for operations to be carried out elsewhere, as a logistical hub, and as a place where the group and its supporters could raise funds through a variety of criminal enterprises.
5️⃣ Hezbollah's involvement in orgnized crime stems from its need for funding, and in particular to establish independence from its patrons in Tehran at a time when Iran is facing financial insecurity.
Hezbollah's involvement in orgnized crime stems from its need for funding, and in particular to establish independence from its patrons in Tehran at a time when Iran is facing financial insecurity.
Hezbollah's involvement in orgnized crime stems from its need for funding, and in particular to establish independence from its patrons in Tehran at a time when Iran is facing financial insecurity.
Hezbollah's involvement in orgnized crime stems from its need for funding, and in particular to establish independence from its patrons in Tehran at a time when Iran is facing financial insecurity.
6️⃣ In the past it was estimated that Hezbollah received somewhere between $100 and $200 million annually from Iran and additional resources from Syria.
7️⃣ Hezbulla is becoming increasingly desperate as Iran is undergoing devastating economic sanctions and the Syrian state is caught up in a civil war and Lebanese government is in a total state of choas.
Hezbollah's criminal activities are designed to help plug that gap.
8️⃣ Hezbollah's operatives run one of the largest and most sophisticated global criminal operations in the world.
These criminal activities have strengthened the organisation and made it more difficult for Western nations to undermine it.
9️⃣ In its 2013 Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment report, Europol identified several 'crime enablers.' These included 'logistical hotspots, diaspora communities, corruption, and the use of legal business structures, cross-border opportunities, identity theft,
🔟 document forgery, and violence.' Hezbollah exploits all of these, not only in Europe, but worldwide.
1️⃣1️⃣ Hezbollah has taken advantage of cross border opportunities to traffic arms, cash, and drugs.
In 2008, German authorities at Frankfurt airport arrested two Lebanese men carrying more than €8 million raised by a Hezbollah cocaine smuggling ring.
1️⃣2️⃣ The two had trained in Hezbollah camps, however they were not arrested for terrorist or militant activities, but for cocaine trafficking. Traces of cocaine were found on the bills, along with the fingerprint of an infamous Dutch drug kingpin.
1️⃣3️⃣ A year later, two other men from the same ring, involved in moving drugs from Beirut into Europe, were arrested in a house raid in Speyer.
1️⃣4️⃣ In 2009, Admiral James Stavridis, then commander of US Southern Command, noted an expanded presence of terrorist drug traffickers in West Africa, which had become their 'springboard to Europe.
1️⃣5️⃣ By late February 2012, Yuri Fedotov, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, informed the UN Security Council that 'the West African transit route feeds a European cocaine market which in recent years grew fourfold
1️⃣6️⃣ we estimate that cocaine trafficking in West and Central Africa generates some $900 million annually.' US investigations have revealed that Hezbollah is a major player in the transit of drugs and money from South America to Europe and the Middle East via West Africa.
1️⃣7️⃣ In January 2011, one of the largest Hezbollah narcotics trafficking and money laundering schemes was disrupted. The U.S. Department of Treasury identified Hezbollah operative Ayman Joumma, along with an additional nine individuals and 19 businesses, as being involved.
1️⃣8️⃣ A Drug Enforcement Administration investigation revealed that Joumma laundered as much as $200 million a month from the sale of cocaine in Europe and the Middle East through operations located in Lebanon, West Africa, Panama and Columbia, using money-exchange houses,
1️⃣9️⃣ bulk cash smuggling and other schemes. Joumma's network laundered money through Lebanese Canadian Bank (LCB) accounts, which he used to execute sophisticated trade-based money laundering schemes.
2️⃣0️⃣ The FBI uncovered a broad Hezbollah plot not only to sell counterfeit and stolen currency, but also to procure a long list of sophisticated weapons.
2️⃣1️⃣ According to law enforcement officials, in the late 2000s Hezbollah militant Hassan Karaki was helping to lead a broad criminal conspiracy to sell counterfeit and stolen currency to an undercover FBI informant posing as a member of the Philadelphia criminal underworld.
2️⃣2️⃣ An undercover officer posed to the group of suspected Lebanese crooks as someone who could fence stolen goods. Members of the group bought what they believed to be stolen property from the undercover agent and sent the merchandise to destinations as diverse as Michigan,
2️⃣3️⃣ California, Paraguay, Brazil, Slovakia, Belgium, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria and Iran.
2️⃣4️⃣ According to details revealed by law enforcement officials, and in a subsequent US trial, the money for these purchases came from Danni Tarraf, a German-Lebanese procurement agent for Hezbollah with homes in Lebanon and Slovakia.
2️⃣5️⃣ Tarraf wasted little time before asking whether the agent could supply guided missiles and 10,000 'commando' machine guns from the United States. With that,
2️⃣6️⃣ a massive Hezbollah criminal fundraising and weapons procurement case was all but delivered to US investigators on a silver platter. In a parallel plot, overseen by Hezbollah politician Hassan Hodroj,
2️⃣7️⃣ Hezbollah sought to procure a long list of sophisticated weapons in a black market scheme involving operatives across the globe.
2️⃣8️⃣ Given Tarraf's global contacts, investigators saw him as the most valuable target of their operation. But their next priority was Dib Harb, the son-in-law of Hodroj and a close associate of Karaki.
2️⃣9️⃣ An FBI source would finally get close to Harb, who revealed that Iran produces high-quality counterfeit currencies using facilities in the Baalbek area of Lebanon, working 18 hours a day to crank out the fake bills for Hezbollah's use.
3️⃣0️⃣Harb was shopping for a buyer for the fake money.
As revealed in the US trial, the FBI source travelled to Beirut in mid-February 2009 to meet Harb's boss, Karaki, who seemed at ease discussing Hezbollah and his own ties to the group.
3️⃣1️⃣ Karaki offered stolen as well as counterfeit money and stressed to the source that the stolen currency could not be spent in Lebanon because it was 'blood money' Hezbollah smuggled from Iran through Turkey and Syria into Lebanon.
3️⃣2️⃣ Just under $10,000 was stolen from Iraq, the source was told. This explained why Hezbollah was so keen that the funds be spent in small amounts only, and not in Lebanon.
3️⃣3️⃣ Karaki's assistant followed up on the meeting, not only sending samples of counterfeit American $100 bills, but European €200 notes as well. In April 2009, Karaki sent Harb to a meeting in southern Florida with the source and the source's purported Philadelphia crime boss.
3️⃣4️⃣ The men negotiated terms for the sale of stolen U.S. currency and multiple counterfeit currencies. According to Harb, Hezbollah's counterfeiting operation also included currency from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the EU.
3️⃣5️⃣At one point, Harb showed the undercover agent a Swedish krona bill with stains from a dye pack security system used by banks to mark stolen funds. According to Harb, the bill was part of a $2 million bank heist Hezbollah supporters pulled off in Sweden.
3️⃣6️⃣ He explained that Hezbollah cells conduct robberies all over the world and send the money to Iran, where it is held before ultimately being distributed to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
3️⃣7️⃣ Harb also explained that Hezbollah does not just produce counterfeit currency, but false European documents as well. Karaki is a major figure in Hezbollah's forgery operations -- a role that would also allow for the production of forged passports and visa stamps if desired.
3️⃣8️⃣He offered several varieties of passports including genuine books from Italy and the Czech republic. A few months after the meetings in Florida, Harb and Karaki delivered fraudulent British and Canadian passports to the FBI source using pictures and information he provided
3️⃣9️⃣ These US investigations reveal a global criminal network with a major presence in Europe. Hossam Yaacoub's arrest and conviction in Cyprus has opened another window into the types of activities that Hezbollah undertakes.
4️⃣0️⃣ He was arrested after performing a surveillance operation on the airport in Cyprus having already helped carry out other 'missions' in France and Holland, using his legitimate Swedish passport to act as a courier.
4️⃣1️⃣ Still Hezbulla operations are up and running and will remain unless the leadership in Lebanon is still free to do all it want with no repercussions.
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