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Project Titan (DEA)
Project Titan was a joint operation conducted by U.S. and Colombian authorities in 2004, targeting Hezbollah's involvement in drug trafficking and money laundering. The project that was part of the larger Project Cassandra, was initiated by DEA agents in Miami as a large-scale money laundering investigation. The operation successfully infiltrated a significant organized crime group in Medellin, Colombia, known as the Oficina de Envigado. It uncovered Hezbollah's deepening involvement with South American drug cartels, notably the Medellín Cartel, to finance its activities. A key figure identified was Chekri Mahmoud Harb, also known as "Taliban," a Lebanese-Colombian national who coordinated cocaine shipments from Colombia to the Middle East and Europe. Harb's network reportedly paid Hezbollah 12% of its narcotics income. Investigation The investigation revealed that Hezbollah operatives established business relationships with South American drug cartels, facilitating the movemen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous states border Canada to the north and Mexico to the south, with the semi-exclave of Alaska in the northwest and the archipelago of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. The United States asserts sovereignty over five Territories of the United States, major island territories and United States Minor Outlying Islands, various uninhabited islands in Oceania and the Caribbean. It is a megadiverse country, with the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, third-largest land area and List of countries and dependencies by population, third-largest population, exceeding 340 million. Its three Metropolitan statistical areas by population, largest metropolitan areas are New York metropolitan area, New York, Greater Los Angeles, Los Angel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cocaine
Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated almost exclusively in the Andes. Indigenous peoples of South America, Indigenous South Americans have traditionally used coca leaves for over a thousand years. Notably, there is no evidence that habitual coca leaf use causes addiction or withdrawal, unlike cocaine. Medically, cocaine is rarely employed, mainly as a topical medication under controlled settings, due to its high abuse potential, adverse effects, and expensive cost. Despite this, recreational drug use, recreational use is widespread, driven by its euphoric and aphrodisiac properties. Levamisole induced necrosis syndrome (LINES)-a complication of the common cocaine Lacing (drugs), cutting agent levamisole-and prenatal cocaine exposure is particularly harmful. Street cocaine is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Money Laundering
Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds into a seemingly legitimate source, usually through a front organization. Money laundering is illegal; the acts generating the money almost always are themselves criminal in some way (for if not, the money would not need to be laundered). As financial crime has become more complex and financial intelligence is more important in combating international crime and terrorism, money laundering has become a prominent political, economic, and legal debate. Most countries implement some anti-money-laundering measures. In the past, the term "money laundering" was applied only to financial transactions related to organized crime. Today its definition is often expanded by government and international regulators such as the US Office of the Comp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hezbollah Members
Hezbollah ( ; , , ) is a Lebanese Shia Muslims, Lebanese Shia Shia Islamism, Islamist political party and paramilitary group. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Parliament of Lebanon, Lebanese Parliament. Hezbollah armed strength, Its armed strength was assessed to be equivalent to that of a medium-sized army in 2016. Hezbollah was founded in 1982 by Lebanese clerics in response to the 1982 Lebanon War, Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Inspired by the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's model of Islamic governance, Hezbollah established strong ties with Iran. The group was initially supported by 1,500 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) instructors, who helped unify various Lebanese Shia factions under Hezbollah's leadership. Hezbollah's 1985 manifesto outlined Ideology of Hezbollah, its key objectives, which include expelling Western influence from the region, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Obama Administration Controversies
Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. Obama previously served as a U.S. senator representing Illinois from 2005 to 2008 and as an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama graduated from Columbia University in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and later worked as a community organizer in Chicago. In 1988, Obama enrolled in Harvard Law School, where he was the first black president of the ''Harvard Law Review''. He became a civil rights attorney and an academic, teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. In 1996, Obama was elected to Illinois Senate career of Barack Obama, represent the 13th district in the Illinois Senate, a position he held until 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Project Cedar (DEA)
Project Cedar was a collaborative international law enforcement operation led by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in partnership with European authorities. Launched in 2016, the initiative aimed to dismantle a sophisticated global drug trafficking and money laundering network associated with Hezbollah’s Business Affairs Component (BAC), a unit known for managing the organization's financial activities. The investigation was part of the larger Project Cassandra, which was an umbrella initiative encompassing about 20 operations targeting Hezbollah's global criminal support network. The investigation revealed that Hezbollah had developed extensive ties with South American drug cartels, including La Oficina de Envigado, which supplied cocaine to markets in the United States and Europe and the Colombia's Medellín Cartel. Notably, Chekri Mahmoud Harb, also known as "Taliban," was a central figure in this network. Harb, a Lebanese-Colombian national, was involved ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foreign Relations Of Hezbollah
Hezbollah has a Foreign Relations Unit () and maintains relations with a number of foreign countries and entities. These are particularly Shia states, but also Sunni groups like those affiliated with the Palestinian cause; and the group is also suggested to have operations outside the Middle East in places such as Latin America and North Korea. Hezbollah has especially close relations with Iran, with the former Alawite leadership in Syria, specifically with President Hafez al-Assad (until his death in 2000) and his son and successor Bashar al-Assad (until he was otherthrown in 2024), and has sent fighters in support of Assad in the Syrian Civil War. Hezbollah declared its support for the now-concluded Al-Aqsa Intifada. There is little evidence of ongoing Hezbollah contact or cooperation with al-Qaeda. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Funding Of Hezbollah
The funding of Hezbollah comes from Lebanese business groups, private persons, businessmen, the Lebanese diaspora involved in African diamond exploration, other Islamic groups and countries, and the taxes paid by the Shia Lebanese. Hezbollah says that the main source of its income comes from its own investment portfolios and donations by Muslims. Western sources maintain that Hezbollah receives most of its financial, training, weapons, explosives, political, diplomatic, and organizational aid from Iran and Ba'athist Syria. Iran is said to have given $400 million between 1983 and 1989 through donation. The situation changed due to economic problems, but in 2013 Iran still funded humanitarian efforts carried on by Hezbollah. According to reports released in February 2010, Hezbollah received $400 million from Iran. In 2011, Iran earmarked $7 million to Hezbollah's activities in Latin America. Hezbollah also receives financial and political assistance, as well as weapons and trai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drug Economy In Lebanon
The illegal drug trade in Lebanon involves an expanding Lebanese involvement in both drug production and trade, a phenomenon substantiated by studies. The economic and political upheaval in Lebanon, as delineated in a study by the Euro-Gulf Information Center, has driven Hezbollah, wherein narcotics serve as a notable revenue stream, to intensify its involvement in the drug economy. Western intelligence agencies estimate that Lebanon produces over 4 million pounds of hashish and 20,000 pounds of heroin annually, generating profits exceeding US$4 billion. According to The Washington Post, Lebanon's drug industry contributes substantially to the country's economy, accounting for over half of its foreign-exchange earnings. While a portion of the harvest remains in Lebanon to serve to around 40,000 local drug users, about three-quarters are smuggled to Egypt, Israel, Europe, and North America. Law enforcement officials in the United States said that nearly 2,500 pounds of Lebanes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ayman Saied Joumaa
Ayman Saied Joumaa is a Colombian/ Lebanese national and alleged drug kingpin. The US Treasury Department alleges that his organization launders money and traffics illicit drugs in the Americas, Middle East, Europe, and Africa, and that he has ties to Hezbollah and the Los Zetas cartel. Criminal activities and link to Hezbollah On January 26, 2011, the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) listed him as a Specially Designated Narcotics Trafficker under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. This was due to Joumaa’s money-laundering operations supporting Hezbollah’s activities, as investigated during Project Cassandra. Legal proceedings On November 23, 2011, a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, indicted Joumaa for distributing tens of thousands of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia through Central America to Los Zetas in Mexico and for laundering millions of dollars' worth of drug money from Mexico, Europe, and West Africa to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Market
A black market is a Secrecy, clandestine Market (economics), market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality, or is not compliant with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the set of goods and services whose production and distribution are prohibited or restricted by law, non-compliance with the rule constitutes a black-market trade since the transaction itself is illegal. Such transactions include the illegal drug trade, prostitution (where prohibited), illegal currency transactions, and human trafficking. Participants try to hide their illegal behavior from the government or regulatory authority. Cash is the preferred medium of exchange in illegal transactions, since cash transactions are less easily traced. Common motives for operating in black markets are to trade contraband, avoid taxes and regulations, or evade price controls or rationing. Typically, the totality of such activity is referred to with the definite article, e.g., "''the' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drug Cartel
A drug cartel is a criminal organization composed of independent drug lords who collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the illegal drug trade. Drug cartels form with the purpose of controlling the supply of the illegal drug trade and maintaining prices at a high level. The formations of drug cartels are common in Latin American countries. Rivalries between multiple drug cartels cause them to wage turf wars against each other. Drug cartels often transport both drugs and narcotics, and most often the term "Narcotics cartel" is not used to describe an organization that transports the latter legally defined set of illegal substances, such as marijuana. Structure The basic structure of a drug cartel is as follows: Falcons Considered as the "eyes and ears" of the streets, the "falcons" are the lowest rank in any drug cartel. They are scouts, who are responsible for conducting reconnaissance, such as reporting the activities of the police, the milit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
