Joint US and Colombia Investigation into Hezbollah's Revenue-Generating Activities in Colombia

A joint investigation by the United States and Colombia, some of the results of which have recently been reported, has examined Hezbollah's activities in Colombia aimed at generating income to finance the organization's terrorist activities. These activities range from selling meat, charcoal, and stolen vehicles to creating fake identities as strategies to increase Hezbollah's revenue. American and Israeli media on Sunday, April 8, cited Colombian media to publish a summary of this three-year investigation conducted by the Colombian police and the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The investigation concludes that many of Hezbollah's activities in Colombia have been ongoing under the external branch of this Lebanese organization, referred to in the West as ESO. This unit has managed to legitimize its operations in Colombia. The investigation has shown that several commercial companies and various platforms in Colombia have served as covers for Hezbollah's activities, under which drug sales, export and sale of stolen vehicles, and bank fraud have been carried out to generate income for Hezbollah. The Colombian police, with the help of Interpol's local branch, have identified Hezbollah's operational priorities in Colombia; at the top of these is ensuring security and creating solid bases for its covert forces in the country, which are brought from the Middle East and settled in cities like Cartagena, Barranquilla, and Maicao under fake identities. Another aspect of Hezbollah's activities includes establishing trading companies specializing in areas such as textile sales and the textile industry (including smuggling clothes from Panama to Lebanon), exporting charcoal to Lebanon (under the supervision of Hezbollah's executive branch led by Mohammad Aqil), and selling meat. According to investigations by Colombian intelligence, European bankers play a role in 80% of these activities and the transfer of exports to Beirut, effectively funding this paramilitary organization's operations, while the remaining 20% of profits are reinvested in revenue-generating activities in Colombia and Panama. The joint report states that Hezbollah's mobilization and doctrine occur in several stages; initially, supporters are sought and mobilized in mosques and cultural centers, so that the mobilized individuals can be sent to Lebanon under the guise of 'scholarships.' Officially, 14,000 Muslims live in Colombia, but it is said that the actual number may reach 40,000; in the past 15 years, the number of Colombian Christian citizens converting to Islam has suddenly increased by 40%, and five mosques and ten Islamic cultural centers are reportedly active in mobilizing supporters for Hezbollah in this country. In addition to these strategies, Hezbollah in Colombia and Panama identifies potential individuals who could become supporters and thus active members through social networks and the virtual space; they contact them and encourage them to convert to Islam through 'brainwashing' and ultimately try to recruit them. The investigations by Colombia and the US indicate that orders and directives come from Tehran to Lebanon; from there, they are passed to the commander of ESO and then to key Hezbollah figures in Colombia. According to these investigations, one of the leaders of the Hezbollah network in Latin America, Abdullah Rada Ramel, a senior Hezbollah figure, was responsible for Hezbollah's affairs in Panama and traveled among many countries in the region such as Venezuela, Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina, and even to Germany, Switzerland, and the United States. Colombia expelled Ramel about six months ago after he was accused and convicted of drug trafficking and money laundering. The external branch of Hezbollah, also known as Unit 910 of Hezbollah, was established under the command of Imad Mughniyeh until he was killed in a bombing in Damascus, Syria, in the winter of 2008. Some reports suggest that Talal Hamieh has replaced Mughniyeh in this branch. Some countries, such as Australia, have sanctioned Hezbollah's external branch as the terrorist arm of this organization outside Lebanon's borders. Israel and Bulgaria believe that the terrorist operation against Israeli tourists in Burgas, Bulgaria, in 2012, which killed five Israelis and their Bulgarian bus driver, was carried out by Hezbollah's external branch. Israel also attributes the terrorist attacks in Argentina in 1992 and 1994 to Hezbollah's external branch; in the explosion of the Israeli embassy, 29 people were killed and 242 were injured, and in the explosion of the Jewish community center, 85 people were killed and over 300 were injured. The external branch of Hezbollah has also been documented to have played a significant role in the assassination of leaders of the Iranian Kurdish Democratic Party in Berlin, according to the documents from the Mykonos trial in Germany. The Iranian opposition has always claimed that Hezbollah forces have played a role in the assassination of opposition activists outside Iran over the past four decades. According to Israeli media reports, Hezbollah's external arm planned a terrorist operation in Bangkok, Thailand, against Israeli targets in 2014 but failed, and those arrested admitted to connections with Hezbollah. A year earlier, individuals in Nigeria who were arrested in connection with the discovery of explosives confessed to connections with Hezbollah. In 2013, a Lebanese man who also held Swedish citizenship was tried and convicted in Cyprus for stalking Israeli tourists to execute a terrorist plot against them. The publication of the results of the three-year investigation by the US and Colombia regarding Hezbollah's financial network in Colombia comes as Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, last year, when the US requested sanctions against some Lebanese banks for their cooperation with Hezbollah, said with a smile, 'Let me reassure you and say that our bread, water, weapons, money, and everything comes from Iran, and as long as Iran has money, Hezbollah will have money too.' The reaction of Iranian leaders, both political figures and military personnel who have long 'prided' themselves on their relationship with Hezbollah, to Nasrallah's remarks was one of heavy silence. Nasrallah has also emphasized on other occasions that Hezbollah has supporters, including traders around the world, who have taken action to financially assist Hezbollah through strategies they consider revenue-generating, but their efforts should not be attributed to Hezbollah itself. However, Hezbollah's activities in Latin America have long been under scrutiny; in 1992, when the Israeli embassy in Argentina was bombed, and two years later, in 1994, when the Jewish community center was destroyed, the attention of the US, Israel, and their allies towards strengthening Hezbollah in Latin America increased. The triangle at the borders of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay has recently been monitored by the US and its allies as one of the main centers for strengthening Hezbollah networks. Strengthening the ties of the Islamic Republic of Iran with some Latin American countries, according to many experts on Middle Eastern affairs and those who have studied Hezbollah's activities since its formation in the early 1980s, has laid the groundwork for the expansion of Hezbollah's activities in Latin America; to the extent that some US officials have also acknowledged that Iran has turned parts of Latin America into its backyard and that of Hezbollah to strike at US interests and those of its allies in this part of the world. Shortly after the start of Donald Trump's administration, Republicans stated that the Obama administration had stalled some of the US's secret efforts to pursue Hezbollah in Latin America and the US itself, in a plan known as 'Cassandra,' out of concern that this would undermine Washington's efforts to reach a nuclear deal with Iran. Following reports in this regard, including on the American website Politico, calls were made by critics of the former US government for judicial follow-up on what they termed negligence and appeasement by the Obama administration regarding Hezbollah and Iran. Jeff Sessions, the US Attorney General, also entered this arena and ordered the initiation of investigations, expressing hope that his country had not fallen short at any stage in pursuing Hezbollah's activities and other terrorist activities; the results of the investigations in the 'Cassandra' case have apparently not yet been completed.