Hezbollah and its associates have been using Australia to launder money for international drug cartels, with at least one locally-based contact now helping security agencies to bring them down.
A year after Australian authorities helped bust a major international money-laundering organisation allegedly headed by Pakistan’s Altaf Khanani, Hezbollah associates in Colombia, West Africa and Europe are accused of moving $500,000 out of Australia in 2014.
So far, only Mohammad Ahmad Ammar, has been taken to the US for prosecution following the sting operation involving agents and informants for the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission.
Ammar last week pleaded not guilty to eight charges in a Florida court, six relating to money laundering and two counts of unlawfully using a communication device.
An alleged accomplice and fellow Hezbollah associate, Hassan Mohsen Mansour, is under French house arrest while the US seeks to extradite him for unrelated money-laundering charges.
Mansour allegedly asked an unidentified Australia-based contact to help launder the money — not knowing that person had become an ACIC informer. ACIC declined to comment yesterday.
Ammar, 24, was arrested and taken to Florida for prosecution last month. He holds Lebanese, Colombian, British and US citizenship and operated from Medellin, Colombia where he allegedly worked closely with drug cartel Oficina de Envigado.
US prosecutors allege that Ammar and his Los Angeles-based father, Ahmed Ammar, are Hezbollah associates, and that he has “numerous ties” to the group’s “business affairs component” — which raises money for external operations, including arms purchases for its fighters in Syria and Iraq.
Hezbollah’s External Security Organisation, a declared terrorist group in Australia, has carried out attacks around the world. Hezbollah itself is not listed in Australia as a terrorist group.
“He (Ammar) is known for facilitating the laundering of illicit monies from or through Holland, Spain, the UK, Australia and Africa,” US authorities alleged in court documents seen by The Australian.
Mansour is also accused by US authorities of unspecified criminal activity that goes beyond money laundering and drug trafficking. “Hassan Mohsen Mansour is a Hezbollah associate, known to be involved in multifaceted criminal activity, not simply money laundering or drug trafficking,” the court documents allege.
“His level of participation in BAC affairs is significant, working directly with established members of Hezbollah.”
The revelations came after The Australian reported in January that ACIC and Australian Federal Police were involved in investigating Khanani’s group — linked to al-Qa’ida, Hezbollah, Chinese Triads and drug cartels in Colombia and Mexico — and its presence in Australia. Khanani is in custody in the US.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/terror/australia-terrorist-moneylaundering-links-to-drug-cartels/news-story/c9a9d94695f244525cbe9f94ee10f3f6
