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Abdallah Safi-Al-Din
Abdallah Safi-Al-Din (born on July 8, 1960, in Southern Lebanon) is a senior Hezbollah official who serves as the group's representative to Iran, playing a central role in financial and operational coordination between Hezbollah and the Iranian regime. He is considered a key figure in maintaining Hezbollah's strategic and diplomatic ties with Iran while also overseeing global financial operations linked to criminal enterprises. He is cousin to former Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah Role in Hezbollah Envoy to Iran Abdallah Safi-Al-Din functions as Hezbollah's primary liaison with the Iranian regime, facilitating financial and logistical support for the organization. His role includes managing strategic ties and securing funding through Iranian institutions. Leadership in criminal networks Since at least 2008, Safi-Al-Din has led a global Hezbollah criminal network involved in drug trafficking, Arms trafficking, and money laundering. This network operates under ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southern Lebanon
Southern Lebanon () is the area of Lebanon comprising the South Governorate and the Nabatiye Governorate. The two entities were divided from the same province in the early 1990s. The Rashaya and Western Beqaa districts, the southernmost districts of the Beqaa Governorate. The main cities of the region are Sidon, Tyre, Jezzine and Nabatiyeh. The cazas of Bint Jbeil, Tyre, and Nabatieh in Southern Lebanon are known for their large Shi'a Muslim population with a minority of Christians. Sidon is predominantly Sunni, with the rest of the caza of Sidon having a Shi'a Muslim majority, with a considerable Christian minority, mainly Melkite Greek Catholics. The cazas of Jezzine and Marjeyoun have a Christian majority and also Shia Muslims. The villages of Ain Ebel, Debel, Qaouzah, and Rmaich are entirely Christian Maronite. The caza of Hasbaya has a Druze majority. History Free Lebanon State and South Lebanon security belt Southern Lebanon became the location of the self ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Imad Mughniyeh
Imad Fayez Mughniyeh (; 7 December 1962 – 12 February 2008), also known by his nom de guerre al-Hajj Radwan (), was a Lebanese militant leader who was the founding member of Lebanon's Islamic Jihad Organization and number two in Hezbollah's leadership. He is believed to have been Hezbollah's chief of staff and overseer of its military, intelligence, and security apparatus. He has been described as a skilled military tactician and a highly elusive figure. He was often referred to as an ‘untraceable ghost’. U.S. and Israeli officials say Mughniyeh was directly and personally involved in terrorist attacks and the mastermind of many suicide bombings, murders, kidnappings, and assassinations. Mughniyeh formed Unit 121 as Hezbollah's covert assassination squad and he was behind the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing and 1983 United States embassy bombing, in which over 350 people were killed, as well as the kidnapping of dozens of foreigners in Lebanon in the 1980s. He was indicted ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lebanon
Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west; Cyprus lies a short distance from the coastline. Lebanon has a population of more than five million and an area of . Beirut is the country's capital and largest city. Human habitation in Lebanon dates to 5000 BC. From 3200 to 539 BC, it was part of Phoenicia, a maritime civilization that spanned the Mediterranean Basin. In 64 BC, the region became part of the Roman Empire and the subsequent Byzantine Empire. After the seventh century, it Muslim conquest of the Levant, came under the rule of different Islamic caliphates, including the Rashidun Caliphate, Rashidun, Umayyad Caliphate, Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphate, Abbasid. The 11th century saw the establishment of Christian Crusader states, which fell ... [...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] |
Drug Traffickers
The illegal drug trade, drug trafficking, or narcotrafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs through the use of drug prohibition laws. The think tank Global Financial Integrity's ''Transnational Crime and the Developing World'' report estimates the size of the global illicit drug market between US$426 and US$652billion in 2014, which is equal to the UK's national debt alone. With a world GDP of US$78 trillion in the same year, the illegal drug trade may be estimated as nearly 1% of total global trade. Consumption of illegal drugs is widespread globally, and it remains very difficult for local authorities to reduce the rates of drug consumption. History Prior to the 20th century, governments rarely made a major effort to proscribe recreational drug use, though several smoking bans were passed by authorities in Euro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drug Enforcement Administration
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating illicit Illegal drug trade, drug trafficking and distribution within the U.S. It is the lead agency for domestic enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act, sharing concurrent jurisdiction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The DEA is responsible for coordinating and pursuing U.S. drug investigations both domestically and internationally. It was established in 1973 as part of the U.S. government's War on Drugs, war on drugs. The DEA has an DEA Office of National Security Intelligence, intelligence unit that is also a member of the U.S. Intelligence Community. While the unit is part of the DEA chain-of-command, it also reports to the Director of National Intelligence, director of national intelligence. The DEA has been criticized for sche ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Axis Of Resistance
The Axis of Resistance is an informal coalition of Iranian-supported militant and political organizations across the Middle East. Formed by Iran, it unites actors committed to countering the influence of the United States and Israel in the region. It most notably includes the Lebanese Hezbollah, Islamic Resistance in Iraq, the Popular Mobilization Forces, and the Yemeni Houthi movement. It sometimes includes Hamas, and a variety of Palestinian political violence, other Palestinian militant groups. The various actions of members of this axis reflect their domestic interests while serving the broader goal of complicating Israel's attacks and imposing a cost on the United States to support Israel. The United States designates most of these groups as List of designated terrorist groups, terrorist organizations. Despite this, between 2014 and 2017, militant groups within the axis under the command of Qasem Soleimani co-ordinated with U.S. military forces against the Islamic State (IS ... [...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] |
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] |
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] |
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] |
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] |
