US places sanctions on 10 people over alleged Hezbollah cash-smuggling ring
Courier network carried millions of dollars in cash to Lebanon on commercial flights, treasury department says The US treasury department announced sanctions on Thursday against 10 people it says formed a courier network that smuggled hundreds of millions of dollars to Hezbollah by carrying cash onboard commercial flights between Iran, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon. The office of…
The US Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on 10 individuals it claims were part of a courier network used to smuggle millions of dollars in cash to Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group. According to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the network facilitated the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars by transporting cash on commercial flights between Iran, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Lebanon.
The sanctions target the individuals for allegedly enabling Hezbollah to obtain foreign currency and circumvent sanctions through an informal banking system. The Treasury Department identified the operation as connected to a scheme previously linked to Behnam Shahriyari, a finance official for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, who has since passed away.
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