The U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated four individuals and three entities involved in laundering the proceeds of narcotics trafficking for drug kingpin Ayman Joumaa. Treasury also designated a Colombia-based individual under its terrorism authority, Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, for directing Hizballah’s fundraising activities in the Americas. This individual was previously designated under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act) for his role in narcotics-related money laundering. Today’s designations further expose Ayman Joumaa’s network as a major narcotics and money laundering enterprise that has reach throughout the Americas and the Middle East with links to Hizballah. As with the February 2011 action against Lebanese Canadian Bank, these actions again highlight Hizballah’s links to major South American narcotics money laundering organizations.
“The Joumaa network is a sophisticated multi-national money laundering ring, which launders the proceeds of drug trafficking for the benefit of criminals and the terrorist group Hizballah,” said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen. “We and our partners will continue to aggressively map, expose and disable this network, as we are doing with today’s sanctions.”
BACKGROUND:
Ayman Joumaa was designated pursuant to the Kingpin Act in January 2011 for his role as a high-level money launderer and drug trafficker operating in the Americas, Middle East, Europe, and Africa. Joumaa and his organization laundered proceeds from their illicit activities – as much as $200 million per month – through various channels, including bulk cash smuggling operations and Lebanese exchange houses. Since Treasury’s designation, he was subsequently indicted in November 2011 by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia for being the leader of an international drug trafficking and money laundering network that coordinated multi-ton shipments of cocaine from Colombia to the Los Zetas Mexican drug cartel destined for the United States and for laundering hundreds of millions of dollars in these drug proceeds back to the Colombian suppliers.
Treasury press release: click here
Chart of the Ayman Joumaa affiliates (provided by Treasury)
