SECURITY: Hezbollah’s Narcotrafficking Strategy in Latin America

Hezbollah maintains concurrent connections with powerful stakeholders in Latin America. These characters are linked to money laundering and weapons, principally drug trafficking.

According to a study by the US Naval War College, most Hezbollah militants are located in the tri-border area - where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay share borders..

The “Triple Frontera” is a place known to be a recruitment center, drug trafficking hub and money laundering district for criminal organizations, including Hezbollah.

Expansion does not stop there. The main financiers of Hezbollah could not be other than some of the most important positions in Lat Am - Mexico, Venezuela and Cuba.

Symbiotic Harmony

“Hezbollah can give them (Lat Am criminal bodies) strategic advice and weapons,” explains Rachel Ehrenfeld, director of the American Center for Democracies, “In return, (Lat Am criminals) provide unofficial services, including local drug trafficking routes and arms resources, hence forming a brotherhood of crime and subversion.”

One of such case studies involves Jamal Yousef. Sentenced to 12 years in prison by a New York court, Yousef - of Lebanese origin - was convicted of “providing an arsenal of weapons and explosives to individuals who were part of a terrorist organization (in this case, Colombia’s FARC)” after the trial prosecutor Preet Bharara said.

“There is a complementarity between Iran, Hezbollah and the drug cartels,” says Luis Fleischman, a university professor and an expert on Middle East issues, of Uruguayan origin. “The tunnels built by the drug cartels to transport their product across the border between Mexico and the US are similar to those built Hezbollah in Lebanon to carry weapons,” he adds.

Mexico: Tunnels, Coffee and the US Border

Another case involves Mahmoud Youssef Kourani, sentenced in 2005 in the United States for providing material support to Hezbollah, while uncovering a network of Lebanese who traded through coffee company “The Lebanese” in Tijuana, Salim Boughader Mucharrafille.

It is estimated that about 200 Lebanese compatriots were taken to the US by Boughader, until his arrest in December 2002.

According to an internal memo by the Tucson Police Department in September 2010, filtered by a group of hackers, local authorities were concerned about ties between Mexican drug trafficking organizations and the NE terrorist organization.

Specifically, they noted the Hezbollah rooted experience in the use of small improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and car bombs and serious implications for border security if such expertise and technology were transferred to Mexican DTOs (drug trafficking organizations).

According to the leak, recent events involving the use of vehicles carrying improvised explosive devices represent a significant change of tactics employed by the drug trafficking organizations.

While no connection has been revealed, the extensive use of IEDs by Hezbollah raises the strong suspicion of a possible relationship with DTOs, and especially with the Los Zetas cartel.

In August 2009, Jamal Yousef was arrested in New York after admiting having been responsible for creating a network of Hezbollah in South America and stealing weapons from Iraq to Hezbollah, thus betraying the authorities on a reserve jihadist group in Mexico that included 100 assault rifles M 16, 100 AR-15 rifles, 2,500 hand grenades, C4 explosives and antitank weapons.

In July 2010, Mexican authorities arrested Jameel Nasr in Tijuana, Mexico, who was attempting to establish a network of Hezbollah in the country and across the region.

Nasr was under surveillance by Mexican authorities. He also, as recounted, traveled frequently to Lebanon to receive instructions from Hezbollah and again several strategic locations in Latin America, including a two-month stay in Venezuela in 2008.

Venezuela: Politics and Academia

The governor of Aragua, Tarek El-Aissami, who has been linked several times with drug trafficking, allegedly related to Hezbollah and the Iranian regime.

In 2003, El-Aissami was responsible for the management of Onidex (National Office of Identification and Immigration of Venezuela) - a designation that surprised governmenty supporters and oppositors alike.

The governor of Aragua allegedly had close ties with extremist groups and guerrillas of the University of Los Andes (ULA).

During that time, evidence surfaced that both the current governor of Aragua as Hugo Cabezas, also of Onidex then and then governor of Trujillo, provided the Hezbollah with Venezuelan passports and national documents for transit through the country.

During his years in the ULA, El-Aissami was accused of hiding stolen vehicles and drug trafficking in the rooms of the university campus. There was also talk of safe guarding members of the terrorist group in the same facilities.

According to research conducted by the Venezuelan journalist Patricia Poleo, El-Aissami and other alleged members of Hezbollah in Venezuela are responsible for recruiting young Venezuelans to uphold training programs in southern Lebanon. Certain members have communicated regarding moving activity to the US.

Cuba: Miles from Miami

Later in April 2011, the Venezuelan drug lord chief Walid Makled confirmed in an interview that Hezbollah managed cocaine laboratories in Venezuela with the protection of the government of the country.

In August the same year, the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera reported the news that Hezbollah had established a cell in Cuba to expand its terrorist activity and possibly facilitate an attack on Jewish targets in the Western Hemisphere.

The same year, the international Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported that through this link Hezbollah members moved freely within the United States and Latin America, due to Venezuelan passports and biometric mechanized expedited by a Cuban company hired by Caracas.

Most recently, news apparently confirmed by highly sensitive sources states that the Mossad had informed the leadership of the Israeli government on the establishment of a Hezbollah operational base in Cuba, to support terrorist attacks in the Americas, principally the United States.