Hezbollah Chief is Worth $250 Million, Mostly from Drug-Trafficking

Nasrallah is getting fat off the proceeds from Hezbollah’s global drug-trafficking network, which was established to finance its terrorism.

By: Daniel Siryoti/JNS and United with Israel Staff

The head of the Hezbollah terror organization, Hassan Nasrallah, has amassed a net personal worth of around $250 million due to his organization’s global illegal drug smuggling operations, Al-Ittihad, an Arabic-language newspaper published in the United Arab Emirates, reported on Monday.

According to the report, which relies on senior Lebanese government sources, the scope of his fortune was discovered within the framework of a US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) investigation against Hezbollah, which aside from operating as an international terrorist organization also runs one of the largest drug cartels in the world.

Al-Ittihad further reported that due to newly reimposed economic sanctions that the US has placed on Iran and the massive reduction of Tehran’s budget to Hezbollah, compounded by the heavy financial toll exacted by involvement in the Syrian civil war, Nasrallah ordered an expansion of the organization’s drug-related activities, which resulted in extensive financial gains for Hezbollah and a personal windfall for Nasrallah himself.

Nasrallah, the report continued, appointed his most trusted associates to closely oversee the organization’s drug-smuggling operations.

In February 2016, the DEA said its international investigation had revealed that Hezbollah uses the money it makes from the sale of cocaine in the US and Europe to fund the purchase of weapons for use in Syria and against Israel.

The DEA said at the time that the “ongoing investigation spans the globe and involves numerous international law enforcement agencies in seven countries, and once again highlights the dangerous global nexus between drug trafficking and terrorism.”

Hezbollah members have established business relationships with South American drug cartels, the DEA said.

The Terrorism-Drugs Nexus

The counter-Hezbollah operation is part of the DEA’s Project Cassandra, which targets a global Hezbollah network responsible for the movement of large quantities of cocaine in the United States and Europe.

This global network was founded by deceased Hezbollah Senior commander Imad Mughniyeh, who was reportedly assassinated by Israel in a joint operation with the CIA in 2008.

The DEA says that Hezbollah operatives established business relationships with South American drug cartels, such as La Oficina de Envigado, responsible for supplying large quantities of cocaine to the European and United States drug markets.

Hezbollah continues to launder significant drug proceeds as part of a trade-based money laundering scheme known as the Black Market Peso Exchange, the DEA said.

Project Cassandra was shut down by President Barack Obama, apparently to placate Iran, Hezbollah’s masters, as part of the failed nuclear deal.

The Trump administration recently relaunched the counter-terrorism and crime fighting operation.