Project Cassandra
Project Cassandra was an overall effort led by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to undercut Hezbollah funding from illicit drug sources in South America. The effort had two other investigation running simultaneously: Project Cedar and Project Titan. Launched in 2008, Project Cassandra was investigating the terrorist organization's funding. The DEA, Eurojust, and Europol found that Hezbollah was increasingly involved with drug trafficking and organized crime as a method of funding its activities. The investigation was tracking how hundreds of millions of dollars were being laundered from North America through Europe and West Africa to Lebanon and into Hezbollah's coffers.
Josh Meyer's investigative report, published by Politico in December 2017, described how, during the Obama administration, concerns regarding the Iran nuclear deal took precedence over the DEA project. This caused Project Cassandra to be halted, as it was approaching the upper echelons of Hezbollah's conspiracy, in order to seal a nuclear deal with Iran, even though Hezbollah was still funneling cocaine into the United States. A former Obama administration Treasury official, Katherine Bauer, confirmed this during her testimony to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in February 2017.
See also
- Iran nuclear deal framework
- Drug economy in Lebanon
- Foreign relations of Hezbollah
- Funding of Hezbolla
- Chekri Mahmoud Harb
- Mohamad Noureddine
- Abdallah Safi-Al-Din
- Aly Fayad
External references
- Hezbollah, l'enquête interdite