Busted Los Angeles drug ring had ties to Hezbollah
Wednesday, November 14th, 2007 | 
Email This Post
|
Posted by John under: Distress of Nations,Ishmael
WASHINGTON – A seemingly small-time drug ring busted this week in Los Angeles was actually targeted for funding the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, the Daily News has learned.
Distress of Nations
“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity the sea and the waves roaring;”
—Luke 21:25
Ishmael
“And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.”
—Genesis 16:12
Prosecutors left out the terror tie when they announced Tuesday that federal agents and local cops had arrested a dozen people for allegedly peddling cocaine and counterfeit clothing in Bell, Calif.
But several sources familiar with the investigation said the predominantly Arab-American gang was believed to have smuggled its crime cash to the Iranian-backed terror group.
“This was a classic case of terrorism financing, and it was pretty sophisticated how they did it,” a source close to Operation Bell Bottoms told The News.
The defendants once crammed $123,000 in money orders into a stuffed animal flown to Lebanon, an indictment alleged.
The Justice Department’s national security division and an FBI counterterrorism agent have signed all the court filings.
Because information linking the gang to Hezbollah came from classified intelligence, the alleged ringleader and “his siblings and associates” face criminal charges instead of a terror rap.