EU Report: Money Laundering Through Organized Crime Is Financing Hezbollah

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JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty
Simon Kent

Lebanese nationals worked with organized crime organizations to finance Hezbollah’s terrorist activities, according to a new European Union report on terrorism.

The European Union Terrorism Situation and Trend Report 2018 outlined that last year member states carried out several investigations into financing of terrorism.

One major investigation focused on a large network of Lebanese nationals offering money laundering services to organized crime groups in the EU and using a share of the profits to finance terrorism-related activities of the Lebanese Hezbollah’s military wing.

The report stated, “The cooperation of these money-launderers and Hezbollah’s military wing was a clear example of a nexus between organized crime and terrorism.”

According to the Jerusalem Post, a review of the 70-page EU report found it did not provide specifics on Hezbollah’s activities in Europe. although the terrorist organization has played a key role in aiding Syrian dictator Bashar Assad in the Syrian civil war that has seen the deaths of more than 500,000 people.

Some 950 Hezbollah operatives are in Germany alone, according to numerous German intelligence reports. The Hezbollah members raise funds and recruit new members.

In January, a U.S. counter-terrorism specialist accused Hezbollah of “engaging in criminal conduct on British soil”, as the UK government continues to deny requests issue an outright ban on the group.

In June, members of London’s Jewish community criticised Labour mayor Sadiq Khan for his steadfast refusal to ban the annual al Quds Day march – started by the late Iranian religious leader the Ayatollah Khomeini to call for Israel to be destroyed – at which activists openly display Hezbollah flags.

Socialist leader of the UK Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn has warm opinions of Islamic terrorist organisations that threaten the existence of the Jewish state of Israel, having described Hezbollah and the Palestinian terror group Hamas as “friends” in 2009 and called Hamas “serious, hard-working and not corrupt” in 2017.

Follow Simon Kent on Twitter: or e-mail to: skent@breitbart.com

 

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