Iran: The World’s Greatest Narco State

In 2001, US officials lauded the Taliban for their ban on poppy cultivation and eradicating heroine production. In 2012, Hezbollah’s indignant Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah declared drug trafficking a strictly forbidden practice for its followers.

Fast forward to 2016, and the Taliban are the largest producers of heroin on the planet, and Hezbollah is potentially the most prolific cocaine trafficker in the world.

Two weeks ago, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the creation of the Hezbollah Financing and Narcoterrorism Team (HFNT) to investigate and prosecute the group’s activities related to international narcotics trafficking, terrorism, organized crime, and money laundering. The HFNT will rely heavily on evidence acquired during “Project Cassandra,” a DEA task force assembled in 2008 to curtail Hezbollah’s drug trafficking and related operations.

Last July, the Brazilian Federal Police uncovered irrefutable evidence showing substantial links between Hezbollah and Brazil’s largest organized crime outfit, the dreaded “PCC” (an acronym for “Primeiro Comando da Capital”). The PCC is an international drug trafficking powerhouse on its own, with its vast networks stretching throughout the South American continent, and now there’s evidence that Hezbollah is tapping into these networks to become the largest providers of cocaine into Europe and the Middle East.

Guaracy Mingardi, a Brazilian Political Scientist who’s been investigating the PCC for over 20 years as part of a national security agency, contends that this partnership has been taking advantage of thousands of miles of Brazil’s porous borders for years, and bringing enormous profits for both.

This translates into billions of dollars in weapons and well-paid criminals who are responsible for thousands of murders, creating the equivalent of war zones in certain parts of Brazil, as well as billions more in the funding of international terrorist activities such as training, intel and weapons. Not to mention the devastation caused by the drug itself as it spreads through the Eastern Hemisphere.

For a glimpse into the scale of their power, last year, a Syrian-Brazilian named Jorge Rafaat Toumani, known as the “King of Traffic,” was ambushed along with dozens of his bodyguards by 30 vehicles packed with PCC assassins, in an attack designed to supplant Mr. Rafaat as the de facto king of South America narco traffic.

There is reason to believe President Obama deliberately overlooked Iran’s nefarious activities during his peace overtures to Iran’s Islamist theocracy, a fact that’s thankfully not lost on our current administration.

We all know what Iran represents: Terror and Subjugation of sovereign countries. Perhaps we need to add “Narcoterror” to its list of unenviable qualities.

More:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/attorney-general-sessions-announces-hezbollah-financing-and-narcoterrorism-team

https://www.thedailybeast.com/report-obamas-white-house-went-easy-on-hezbollah-to-appease-iran

http://www.correiobraziliense.com.br/app/noticia/brasil/2017/07/23/internas_polbraeco,611759/pcc-brasileiro-tem-parceria-com-o-hezbollah.shtml

http://www.dw.com/en/us-to-reopen-probe-into-hezbollah-narcoterrorism/a-42113854