The Lebanese army dismantles drug gangs in the Bekaa
Sunday – 5 Shaaban 1444 AH – 26 February 2023 AD Issue Number [16161]
Washington: Elie Youssef – Baalbek (East Lebanon): Hussein Darwish
US Attorney General Brion Pace announced the arrest of Lebanese Mohamed Ibrahim Bazzi (58 years), who also holds Belgian citizenship, after his arrival in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, the day before yesterday (Friday). And the US Department of Justice previously classified Bazzi in 2018 as a “global terrorist”, and said that he is a major financier of “Hezbollah”, and offered $ 10 million to anyone who provides information that helps reveal his whereabouts.
Washington asked the Romanian authorities to extradite him for trial in the United States, along with another Lebanese, Talal Shaheen (78 years old). The charges against Bazzi and Shaheen include; Conspiracy to direct U.S. personnel to conduct illegal transactions with a global terrorist and money laundering conspiracy. Each of the three counts in the indictment carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years.
According to the classification of the US Office of Foreign Assets Control, Bazzi is a major financier of “Hezbollah”, and has secured him millions of dollars over the years, which have resulted from his business activities in Belgium, Lebanon, Iraq and throughout West Africa.
In eastern Lebanon, the army succeeded in dismantling drug trafficking, manufacturing and smuggling networks and arresting those accused of other crimes, such as kidnapping and theft in the Bekaa region. This security campaign is part of a long track that the army started early last year. Residents in that area speak of their satisfaction with the army’s actions, which “greatly undermined the activity of gangs and outlaws.”
One of the most prominent financiers of “Hezbollah” faces 20 years in prison in America
