US places sanctions on 10 people over alleged Hezbollah cash-smuggling ring
Courier network carried millions of dollars in cash to Lebanon on commercial flights, treasury department says
TL;DR
- US Treasury Department sanctions 10 individuals for allegedly operating a cash-smuggling network for Hezbollah.
- The network is accused of moving hundreds of millions of dollars on commercial flights between Iran, Turkey, UAE, and Lebanon.
- The operation allegedly helped Hezbollah obtain foreign currency and evade sanctions outside the formal banking system.
- The scheme is linked to a former finance official for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force.
- Turkish businessman Yunus Alper Yilmaz is accused of running the operation, using Turkish currency exchange houses as fronts.
- Six individuals are accused of physically carrying cash on commercial flights to Lebanon.
- Sanctions freeze any US assets held by the targeted individuals and bar Americans from doing business with them.
- The US Treasury also re-designated Hezbollah as a 'specially designated global terrorist'.