US Sanctions Hezbollah Sanctions Evasion Network, Syrian-Linked Drug Traffickers

The U.S. this week sanctioned people and companies involved in a sanctions evasion network for the terror group Hezbollah and others that help produce and transport Captagon, an addictive amphetamine, to help fund the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria.

The designations target several “key figures” of the Hezbollah finance team, including secretary Silvana Atwi, who is the legal owner of G.M. Farm, a Lebanon-based company with ties to several financial projects that Hezbollah ran with Iranian involvement. The Office of Foreign Assets Control also sanctioned Haidar Houssam al-Din Abdul Ghaffar, a Hezbollah finance official and the legal owner of Global Tradeline SARL, a Lebanese importer of food products to Lebanon that then sells those products to generate revenue for Hezbollah. Ghaffar controls Liban Oui SARL, a dairy production operation within Hezbollah’s finance team’s network.

OFAC also sanctioned Houssam Hamadi, a businessman and Hezbollah finance associate. Hamadi owns Lebanon-based United Sons.

The agency also designated people involved in what it said is a Syria-linked illegal Captagon-trafficking network. Khaldoun Hamieh is a Lebanon-based drug trafficker who has also sold weapons to people linked to the Syrian government, while Syrian national Raji Falhout leads a gang that has worked with the Syrian military and Hezbollah to generate revenue from kidnappings and Captagon trafficking.

Adbellatif Hamideh is a businessman in Syria and the owner of a paper roll factory in Aleppo that OFAC said is a front company for Captagon trafficking. The agency said Hamideh has shipped more than $1.5 billion worth of Captagon pills to Europe by hiding them in industrial paper rolls.