With French authorities now prosecuting 15 members of the Hezbollah ‘criminal organization’ in Paris, the trial examines how Columbian narcotics money is being laundered in Germany to buy weapons for Syria, and possibly against Israel.

ByBENJAMIN WEINTHAL

Lax German illicit terror finance policies permitted the US and EU proscribed Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah to run a vast criminal enterprise to raise funds through a money laundering operation in Europe and South America. French prosecutors put fifteen members of the criminal organization on trial on Tuesday  in Paris.

According to three German media outlets–NDR, WDR and the Süddeutsche Zeitung–two of the accused men lived in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and  an additional two men charged  lived near the city-state of Bremen in northern Germany.

The members of the crime ring are charged with laundering Columbian narcotics money via a complex finance evasion scheme with the aid of the Lebanese Diaspora.

“Germany is an ideal location for organized money laundering, Sven Giegold, a Green Party member of the European Parliament, said, according to a report on Wednesday in the paper Westfälischen Nachrichten .

He said that “It is fully acceptable that one can pay cash for luxury goods or real estate. There are also no legal limits on the use of cash, adding that “Cash from dirty sources has a safe home in Germany.”

An export trader named Ali Z. in the city of Münster in North Rhine-Westphalia is believed to be one of the main alleged Hezbollah agents who oversaw the illegal narcotics operation that tafficked in cocaine for a Columbian drug cartel and used the profits to purchase weapons for Hezbollah to wage war in Syria.

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German media declined to report Ali’s last name due to privacy considerations. Ali said he was innocent and his flourishing export business was manipulated  by the other accused men on trial. The Hezbollah criminal network was named the “Cedar Affair” by the authorities after Lebanon’s prized national tree.

According to German media reports, the Paris prosecutor suspects that the Lebanese network bought with cash just within a year jewelry and watches in value from roughly 10 million euros in jewelry stores in North Rhine-Westphalia and other German states. North Rhine-Westphalia has experienced a growth of Hezbollah members. According to the state’s 2017 intelligence report examined by The Jerusalem Post, the number of Hezbollah members increased from 100 in 2015, to 105 in 2016.

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The Westfälischen Nachrichten  reported that a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office in the city of Aachen in North Rhine-Westphalia  said that in connection with the trial in Paris a quarter of a million euros in cash was seized along with a weapon and a luxury vehicle. Two alleged  money curriers for the criminal Hezbollah network were also arrested in the Aachen area with a half million euros in cash. The criminal enterprise is believed to have laundered as much as 1 million Euro per week during the high point of its operation.

Armin Laschet, the Christian Democratic Union Party minister president of North Rhine-Westphalia, has declined to call for a ban of Hezbollah’s entire network in his state.

The Hezbollah operation worked to take proceeds from narcotics to Europe, where the money was laundered and collected, and then funneled to Lebanon and back to Columbia.  According to the United Arab Emirates-based news outlet The National an “ancient banking system known as hawala” was used to transfer drug money by circumventing regulatory controls. The National wrote “The financial arm of Hezbollah uses supporters in the Lebanon Diaspora around the world to raise funds.”

The US Drug Enforcement Agency intercepted calls in 2015 among Columbian cartel operatives that would help expose the trans-Atlantic and Middle East criminal and terrorism networks.
The two accused men from the city-state of Bremen on trial in Paris and the role Hezbollah in Bremen may add fuel to the fire about the dangers of Hezbollah activities in Germany.

The Post reported exclusively in June that the  Al-Mustafa Community Center in Bremen is a major hub for raising funds for Hezbollah.The Bremen intelligence agency’s newly released report in June stated, “The Al-Mustafa-Community Center supports Hezbollah in Lebanon, especially by collecting donations.”

Germany allows 950 Hezbollah operatives to raise funds and recruit new member in the Federal Republic, according to numerous intelligence reports in the country that were reviewed by the Post. The United States, Canada, the Arab League, the Netherlands and Israel classify Hezbollah a terrorist organization. Germany and the European Union merely designate Hezbollah’s so-called military wing a terrorist entity.

View original The Jerusalem Post publication at:
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Hezbollah-money-laundering-has-a-safe-home-in-Germany-572122