Not a Bot said:
Hezbollah is more or less operating like an Islamic drug cartel. Similar strategy to control the Lebanese people as the cartels use in Central America. They are also big into drug trafficking and have a big presence in South and Central America. They make billions off of the drug trade.
Correct. As does, incidentally, their patron state sponsor,
Iran has for many, many years, and their involvement in
Mexico this year is entirely known. Obama and John F Kerry, who oh by the way served in Vietnam and Cambodia, ended all efforts to stop it:
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There is evidence indicating that Iran, in particular, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Hezbollah affiliated with Iran are involved in the global drug trafficking network.
Naturally, they managed to acquire "business partners" represented by the Albanian mafia and Latin American drug cartels.
Undoubtedly, this kind of activity cannot be carried out without the knowledge of the country's top leadership. Apparently, the Iranian regime treats these activities, on the one hand, as an opportunity to obtain currency to maintain its global Hybrid War, and on the other hand, as a "Narco Jihad" against Western countries and primarily against the United States.
Further, the Obama administration killed efforts to cut off Hezbollah financing and drug exports to the United States.
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In its determination to secure a nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration derailed an ambitious law enforcement campaign targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, even as it was funneling cocaine into the United States, according to a POLITICO investigation.
The campaign, dubbed Project Cassandra, was launched in 2008 after the Drug Enforcement Administration amassed evidence that Hezbollah had transformed itself from a Middle East-focused military and political organization into an international crime syndicate that some investigators believed was collecting $1 billion a year from drug and weapons trafficking, money laundering and other criminal activities.
We've discussed
captagon elsewhere, as well, but this is an effective, new play they have made recently. Somewhat ironically, this was driven in part, very recently, by economic pressures on them attributable to covid and the war in Syria:
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Hezbollah strenuously denies the charge that it is involved in drug trafficking, but the Post report quoted US and Middle East analysts as saying: "Facing extreme financial pressures because of US sanctions, the coronavirus pandemic and Lebanon's economic collapse, Hezbollah appears to be growing increasingly reliant on criminal enterprises, including drug smuggling, to finance its operations."
Hatem Madi, a former Lebanese public prosecutor, told Arab News: "The Captagon pill trade became active because it is easier to smuggle, and faster.
"It is subject to supply and demand. There is no doubt that the war in Syria has left the door open for smugglers and drug traffickers."
Indeed, Lebanon has become a major conduit for smuggling of Captagon pills manufactured in Syria. Even before the country's descent into civil war in 2011, its territory was used by Lebanese militias to cultivate and smuggle marijuana, generating millions of dollars.
Israel and Hamas are just a microcosm of a broader war/conflict, which more should pay attention to, imho.
