Hezbollah money men face French justice after global bust
French courts were told of a vast international money-laundering and drug-smuggling operation run by 15 people linked to Hezbollah.
The network, stretching across four continents, was busted in a wave of arrests in 2016 and the hearings in Paris laid bare an operation that handled tens of millions of dollars in narcotics, luxury contraband and smuggled goods.
The defendants linked to the Lebanese diaspora included Mohamed Noureddine, 44, the suspected chief who was designated as a member of Hezbollah by the US Treasury.
Prosecutors have amassed evidence that the group handled vast sums from large quantities of cocaine shipped to Europe and the US on behalf of a Colombian drug cartel run by kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
Led by the US Drug Enforcement Agency, the investigation involved seven nations including France, Germany, Italy and Belgium.
It was launched in February 2015.
In late January 2016 a co-ordinated series of arrests took place across all four countries.
Mr Noureddine, who denies involvement in drug smuggling, was held at the French airport, Roissy.
French investigators have pieced together a three-tiered money-laundering operation that involved buying luxury goods and even whole businesses to disguise the origins of the drug revenues.
Cash was dropped off at hairdressers in Antwerp in Belgium, a large hotel in Paris, a restaurant in Montreuil or a cafe in Enschede in the Netherlands.
Transcripts showed that Mr Noureddine would order the collection of up to €500,000 (Dh2 million) at a time. Six-figure sums were often delivered in small notes.
Among the colourful codes the group used for its drop-offs was “Mercedes 250”, meaning €250,000, while “truck” was €1m.
The destinations also had
code words, including “oven” for the Netherlands, and “mill” for Belgium.
Outposts ranged from Singapore to Colombia through the Middle East. The informal banking arrangements in hawala networks was often used to move the money across borders, including to the drug gangs of Colombia.
US investigations also compiled evidence of an import and export trade in luxury vehicles including Porsches, BMWs and Range Rovers, which were shipped to West Africa, Lebanon and Dubai.
Dealerships involved in the network occupied some of the most prestigious sites in France, including the Arc de Triomphe showroom in Paris.
Hundreds of thousands of euros was paid to leading jewellers for expensive Rolex and Patek Philippe watches.
The main destination for the luxury products was Beirut airport, where the head of intelligence was a known contact of the group, the US agency said.
It also claims that part of the money was used to buy weapons used by Hezbollah in Syria.
Funds returned to the Colombians were funnelled through Lebanon’s Chams Exchange, active around the world.
The main movers in the money and luxury goods operations were Mr Noureddine, an associate named Abbas Nasser and Mohamad Ali Chour, who was arrested at Abidjan airport in West Africa in 2016 carrying $1.7m (Dh6.2m) said to be destined for Hezbollah’s local operation.
The nexus was ultimately run by a man called Mohammad Ammar from a prominent Lebanese family, who was arrested in Florida in early 2016 while travelling from his home in Medellin, Colombia.
Matthew Levitt, an expert on Hezbollah’s financial operations, said the arrests in 2016 were among the most significant breakthroughs against its lucrative links to drugs and money laundering.
Mr Levitt wrote a report published by the Washington Institute on the US Treasury designation of Mr Noureddine before the arrests.
He wrote that the network maintained direct ties between Hezbollah’s commercial and terrorist elements.
“Within days of this designation, Noureddine was arrested in France along with several other accused Hezbollah operatives,” Mr Levitt wrote.
“The arrests, it would turn out, were part of a longplanned and well-executed law enforcement operation – Operation Cedar – of which the Treasury designation was just one part.
“It was the extensive evidence of a Hezbollah transnational criminal enterprise, largely, but by no means only, operating out of Europe, that led to this massive international law enforcement operation targeting Hezbollah’s business component’s activities in Europe.”
Evidence was compiled of trade in luxury vehicles and of payments to leading jewellers for expensive watches