BICOM

A Politico report claims the Obama administration derailed a US investigation into Hezbollah drug trafficking due to its determination to secure a nuclear deal with Iran.

The US investigation, called Project Cassandra, was launched in 2008 after the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) amassed evidence that Hezbollah had transformed itself into an international crime syndicate collecting $1bn a year from drug and weapons trafficking, money laundering and other criminal activities.

For eight years, agents worked with a network of U.S. and foreign security agencies using wiretaps, undercover operations and informants to map Hezbollah’s illicit networks.

But when Project Cassandra sought approval for significant investigations, prosecutions, arrests and financial sanctions, officials at the Justice and Treasury departments delayed, hindered or rejected their requests. According to Politico, the State Department also rejected requests to lure high-value targets to countries where they could be arrested. Taskforce members say that the administration rejected repeated efforts to charge Hezbollah’s military wing as an ongoing criminal enterprise under federal racketeering laws designed to prosecute organised crime groups.

Obama Administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, denied they derailed any actions against Hezbollah for political reasons, but did say they were guided by broader policy objectives, including de-escalating the conflict with Iran, curbing its nuclear weapons program and freeing American prisoners held by Tehran.

Katherine Bauer, an Obama-era Treasury official, said in testimony presented last February to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, that “under the Obama administration … these [Hezbollah-related] investigations were tamped down for fear of rocking the boat with Iran and jeopardising the nuclear deal”.

John “Jack” Kelly, a DEA agent overseeing Hezbollah cases at the Special Operations Division said: “They were a paramilitary organization with strategic importance in the Middle East, and we watched them become an international criminal conglomerate generating billions of dollars for the world’s most dangerous activities, including chemical and nuclear weapons programs and armies that believe America is their sworn enemy.”

US President Donald Trump will today unveil a new national security strategy that, that amongst other things, will touch on Iran and countering Hezbollah. During a Cabinet-level meeting this month, he signed off an approximately 70-page draft that his national security advisor, H.R. McMaster summarised using Ronald Reagan’s slogan “peace through strength”.