Authorities: A crucial Hezbollah financier was detained in Bucharest
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Alaina
- . February 25, 2023
- . Update: February 25, 2023 6:09 pm
Federal officials reported that a Lebanese and Belgian national thought to be a significant financier of the militant organisation Hezbollah, which is supported by Iran, was detained on Friday in Bucharest, the capital of Romania.
Mohammad Ibrahim Bazzi, 58, who was designated a “global terrorist” by the US in 2018 after a $10 million reward for information on his whereabouts, is believed to have given Hezbollah millions of dollars over the years, according to officials.
US Attorney Breon Peace in Brooklyn stated that allegations in an indictment returned last month in federal court in Brooklyn called for the extradition of Bazzi and Talal Chahine, a 78-year-old Lebanese citizen.
Muhammad Bazzi believed he could covertly transfer hundreds of thousands of dollars from the United States to Lebanon without the authorities noticing, according to a release from Peace.
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Bazzi and Chahine were accused of conspiring to get Americans to trade illegally with a foreign terrorist organisation and of money laundering. Who will represent the men when they get to the United States is yet unknown.
The defendants “attempted to offer continuous financial assistance to Hezbollah, a foreign terrorist group responsible for death and destruction,” said to acting Drug Enforcement Administration chief Daniel J. Kafafian in New Jersey.
According to the statement announcing his detention, Bazzi was detained by Romanian police enforcement after arriving in Bucharest on Friday.
According to the authorities, Bazzi and Chahine planned to coerce or compel a person in the US to sell their stake in some Michigan real estate assets and secretly transfer the earnings to Bazzi and Chahine in Lebanon.
According to investigators, the individuals were overheard on conversations being recorded suggesting various strategies to hide from American law enforcement officials that Bazzi was the origin and final destination of the sale’s earnings and that the men were engaged.
