By Pishtaz | 2025-03-21

Eight Latin American criminal cartels that were designated as terrorist organizations by the United States in February have had extensive operational ties with Hizbullah over the past two decades, according to multiple reports.

The blacklisted cartels include Venezuela's Tren de Aragua and Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel and Cártel del Noreste, among other international criminal organizations.

The US State Department accuses them of involvement in drug trafficking, kidnapping, extortion, assassinations and use of military-grade weapons.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) maintains a network of operations across Latin America through criminal partnerships, per a November 2023 Diálogo Americas report.

The IRGC Quds Force's secretive Unit 840 coordinates with local groups to carry out assassinations, kidnappings and other actions, the report said.

The presence of the IRGC Quds Force in Latin America "is not just a potential risk, but a palpable reality," terrorism expert Alejandro Cassaglia told Diálogo.

"Criminal organizations increasingly adopt terrorist tactics to pursue their economic objectives," according to a June 2024 report by the United Nations International Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI).

"At the same time, terrorist organizations in Latin America have transformed into hybrid entities driven by both ideological beliefs and economic gains."

Criminal symbiosis

Lebanese Hizbullah has operated in the Tri-Border Area (TBA) where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay converge since the 1990s, using front companies to conceal drug trafficking and terror financing activities, the UNICRI report said.

Brazilian authorities arrested top Hizbullah financier in South America Assad Ahmad Barakat in the TBA in September 2018.

A 2011 US investigation revealed the Lebanese Canadian Bank laundered hundreds of millions of dollars in drug proceeds for a global trafficking network linked to Hizbullah.

"They operate like the Gambinos on steroids," one investigator told the New York Times, referring to a notorious crime family.

Lebanese drug kingpin Ayman Joumaa smuggled 85 tons of cocaine into the US and laundered $850 million for Mexican cartels while maintaining deep ties to Hizbullah operatives, according to US court documents and the US Treasury.

The 2011 indictment revealed Joumaa served as a go-between for Hizbullah and Los Zetas (now Cártel del Noreste), coordinating multi-ton cocaine shipments from Colombia through Central America.

The Sinaloa cartel collaborates with Hizbullah in global trafficking operations, coordinating with Venezuela's narco-generals (aka Cártel de los Soles) to move drugs through the TBA, Brookings Institute reported in September 2022.

Tren de Aragua, which has "Iran's support" had extended its influence from Venezuela to Chile and beyond, "evidencing the complexity of Iran's operations in collaboration with local groups," security expert Jorge Serrano told Diálogo.