How Hezbollah Exploits Cocaine, Corruption and Chaos in Venezuela

After Hamas’s savage October 2023 attack on Israel, which claimed 1,200 lives, most of them civilians, Hezbollah stepped up its confrontational posture, raising fears of new terrorist attacks. The militant Lebanese political group has for decades acted as a powerful proxy actor for Iran’s theocratic regime. Hezbollah, who US designated as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997, it gained a menacing reputation for bombing civilian targets and engaging in a range of criminal activities, particularly narcotics and arms trafficking, as well as money laundering. of Hezbollah considerable but overlooked presence in Latin America present significant risks. It gives militants access to lucrative illicit economies, along with the ability to strike weak targets in a region lacking robust counter-terrorism capabilities. Following the Venezuelan The fraudulent electoral victory of President Nicolas MaduroHezbollah will expand its South American presence ca Iran increases support for criminal regime to counter tougher US sanctions.

Hezbollah participates in a number of criminal and terrorist activities in Latin America. Among the most notorious terrorist attacks by the Shia militant in the region is the 1992 suicide bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where nine embassy staff and dozens of civilians were killed. Then there was the 1994 attack on the AMIA Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, where a suicide bomber left 85 dead and hundreds injured, making it the deadliest terrorist attack in Argentina. It is speculated that Hezbollah, along with Brazilian organized crime groups (Spanish), orchestrated the May 2022 assassination of Paraguayan organized crime prosecutor Marcelo Pecci while he was on vacation in Cartagena, Colombia. Brazilian authorities, in cooperation with Israeli intelligence, recently uncovered a Hezbollah network that planned to attack Jewish targets in Latin America’s largest country.

These events underscore the sophisticated nature of Hezbollah’s South American networks and the destabilizing influence they wield over a politically vulnerable and volatile region. For decades, allegations have swirled over Hezbollah’s operation of training camps in South America and its deep involvement in the continent’s cocaine trade, particularly in The tri-state area a globally recognized hub for illicit economies. Over the past 20 years, criminal activities, particularly cocaine trafficking and money laundering, have emerged as key sources of income for Hezbollah. It is inevitable that the Shiite militia would engage in such a lucrative business, with a global market valued north of $100 billion annually. As a result, Hezbollah is believed to have become a major player in Europe’s cocaine trade, which it is valued at $12 billion each year. Estimates vary, but it is believed to be cocaine smuggling generate up to three hundred million dollars annually for Hezbollah. This makes narcotics trafficking the second largest source of income for the Lebanese militia, second only to Tehran’s funding. it is believed to be worth $700 million annually.

South America’s lawless Tri-Border area has been at the heart of Hezbollah’s criminal network for decades, but quickly the growing importance of cocaine trafficking for its finances, the terrorists are expanding into the North Andean countries of South America, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela. You see, Colombia is torn by conflict the largest producer of cocaine in the worldwhile Venezuela and Ecuador are key international transshipment hubs. Dismantling Hezbollah’s narcotics and money laundering networks in the Tri-Border area by US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) encouraged the militants to move the center of operations to northern South America. This has been further fueled by lawlessness in Colombia, which has been locked in an asymmetric conflict for decades, and Venezuela, where Hugo Chavez’s 1999 Bolivarian Revolution it triggered democratic backlash and widespread corruption.

The large Lebanese and Shia Muslim diasporas in Colombia and Venezuela provide easily exploitable communities for Hezbollah to infiltrate. Radical Lebanese Shia militants do this by leveraging family ties to build legitimate and illicit business networks that are used to generate income and launder the proceeds of crime to finance operations in the Middle East. Colombia, as the world’s largest producer of cocaine, is particularly important to Hezbollah because the Andean country’s long history of weak and lawless central governments has allowed illegal armed groups to flourish. The extraordinary profits generated by cocaine production are responsible for financing Colombia’s low-intensity armed conflict that has lasted nearly 70 years. right United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) 2022 cocaine production reached an all-time high of 1,738 metric tons, a staggering 24% increase from 2021. This has sparked fears that Colombia’s cocaine shipments would exceed oil seeing the narcotic become the Andean nation’s main export.

The increase in cocaine production is not only responsible for funding illegal armed groups that challenge the government and increasing violence in the countryside, but also attracts the attention of transnational criminal syndicates such as Hezbollah. The Lebanese militants have established links with various Colombian illegal armed groups involved in the cocaine trade, notably the Oficina de Envigado, the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AGC – Spanish initials) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC – Spanish initials). After the 2016 peace deal with the FARC, Hezbollah continued to forge relationships with dissident troops that rejected the deal. For decades Colombia’s leftist guerrillas have operated along the porous border with Venezuela, where they continue to maintain a significant presence to this day.

After Chavez took office and initiated his Bolivarian Socialist Revolution in February 1999, Caracas cultivated relations with the leftist guerrillas FARC and the National Liberation Army (ELN – Spanish initials) in Colombia. The leftist regime continued to provide weapons, logistical support and safe havens in Venezuela for leftist guerrillas in Colombia. Following the 2016 peace accord, dissident FARC troops and elements of the ELN have expanded their operations in Venezuela, particularly in cocaine trafficking, extortion and illegal gold mining, as the rule of law and government control in remote regions they failed. This has allowed those illegal armed groups to operate with impunity while amassing considerable wealth and power, to the point where they have provided basic public services for communities in the areas abandoned by Caracas. The Chavez regime continued to foster associations with other US-designated foreign terrorist organizations and armed groups, particularly Hezbollah.

The democratic return, endemic corruption and crumbling state institutions have been responsible for the increase in lawlessness, making Venezuela an attractive base of operations for Hezbollah. Chavez allowed Lebanese militants to establish a safe haven on Margarita Island, off the east coast of Venezuela, and harbored Venezuelan supporters of the US-designated terrorist organization. By 2010, US officials have estimated that there are Hezbollah training camps operating in and around Caracas, administered by the Venezuelan military. Meanwhile, Venezuelans of Lebanese, Syrian and Iranian origin were recruited for paramilitary training at Hezbollah units. The regime even continued to broker arms for cocaine deals between the FARC and Hezbollah, while providing Venezuelan passports to Hezbollah and Hamas operatives.

As ever-tightening US sanctions deepened, Caracas became increasingly dependent on the illicit economy, particularly cocaine trafficking, arms smuggling and money laundering, to generate urgently needed foreign exchange. The growth of illegal activities in Venezuela was further facilitated by the Chavez regime’s endemic corruption, centralized authority and discontent, which saw the pariah state emerge as an important transshipment point for cocaine trafficking. According to the DEA, almost a quarter of the world’s cocaine production passes through Venezuela. It is estimated at approximately 16% of Venezuela’s gross domestic product (GDP). (Spanish) is driven by illicit economies, highlighting Caracas’ reliance on illegal activities in an economy that has shrunk by more than 60 percent since Maduro took power in 2013.

The Maduro regime’s dependence on income from illicit economies and support from Hezbollah’s main benefactor, Iran, has created a fertile environment for the Lebanese to expand their presence in Venezuela. Hezbollah has already formed a strategic relationship with the Cartel of the Suns (Cartel De Los Soles) in Venezuela, a embedded drug trafficking cell network in the military forces of the authoritarian regime. A key figure of the regime, until his fall from grace, with Long-standing close ties to Hezbollah are former vice president and oil minister Tareck El Aissami who is of Iraqi Lebanese descent. Venezuelan intelligence documents show that El Aissami and his Syrian immigrant father, who worked with Hezbollah in Syria, recruited members and facilitated cocaine trafficking for the militant organization. During El Aissami’s time as interior minister, he gave Venezuelan passports to at least 800 migrants from Middle Eastern countries with ties to Hezbollah. It is speculated that the autocratic regime has gave away up to 10,000 Venezuelan passports citizens of Syria, Iran and Lebanon.

Growing international outrage over Maduro fraudulently stole the 2024 presidential election coupled with the regime’s increasingly violent crackdown on the opposition will lead to tougher sanctions against Caracas. This will force the dictatorial government to become more dependent on Iran’s support and illicit economies to generate essential foreign exchange. Indeed, Tehran itself the target of severe US sanctionsis a important source of crucial condensation and aid to Venezuela’s oil industry, which is responsible for the return to growth of Venezuela’s economy. These events will create a fertile environment for illegal armed groups to expand their operations in Venezuela, with Hezbollah optimally positioned to strengthen its presence, particularly in cocaine trafficking and money laundering. As this occurs, it will further destabilize one of the most volatile areas in South America at a critical time with the increase in the production of cocaine that fuels the violence in neighboring Colombia.

By Matthew Smith for OIlprice.com