Washington: Members of the Hezbollah militant group were arrested on charges they used millions of dollars from the sale of cocaine in the United States and Europe to purchase weapons in Syria, the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said on Monday.
Hezbollah has sent fighters to support Syrian President Bashar Al Assad in the country’s almost five-year-old civil war.
It is designated a terrorist organisation by the United States.
Those arrested include leaders of the network’s European cell, who were taken into custody last week, the DEA statement said. Among them was Mohammad Nour Al Deen, who the DEA accuses of being a Lebanese money launderer for Hezbollah’s financial arm.
The United States has labelled Nour Al Deen a specially designated global terrorist, it said.
The DEA did not give the total number of those arrested or say where they were apprehended.
The investigation “once again highlights the dangerous global nexus between drug trafficking and terrorism,” the statement said.
Seven countries, including France, Germany, Italy and Belgium, were involved in the investigation that began in February 2015 and is ongoing.
The US Treasury Department last week imposed sanctions against Nour Al Deen and Hamdi Zaher Al Deen, another alleged Hezbollah money launderer. Nour Al Deen’s Trade Point International also was placed under sanctions.
