HEZBOLLAH'S MONEY LAUNDERERS: THE CRIMINAL SYNDICATE NOBODY WANTS TO TALK ABOUT

                                                   

This is a very controversial topic, so it is perhaps best that I publish this information, given my own heritage. Our Russian family name comes from the fact that my forebears emigrated to the United States roughly a century ago. Their ancestral village was subsequently wiped out, to a man, during the Second World War, by a Nazi extermination squad, according to records kept by the German regime, so you should now have a good idea about my religious background.

There is a well-entrenched criminal organization, operating in the Republic of Panama, that is engaged in moving narco-profits earned by Hezbollah, the specially-designated global terrorist organization, out of the Western Hemisphere, and into the Middle East. For reasons of political correctness, both the media, and the law enforcement community have danced around identifying it, and naming it, but the fact that it functions as a conduit for terrorist financing, unimpeded, and largely unknown, is reason enough to bring it out of the shadows.

This syndicate is composed, largely, of families who are descended from immigrants from the Middle East, who settled in Panama decades ago, who were Syrians, and other nationalities in the region. For lack of a better term, we refer to them as the Syrian, or Sephardic, organized crime syndicate. It owns, or holds a substantial interest in, a number of Panama City financial institutions.

The organization is regularly engaged in money laundering of criminal proceeds, and its clientele is not limited to Colombian and Venezuelan narcotics traffickers. It has moved money for the principal terrorist organizations, located in the Middle East, as well as ETA, for many years, but the most amoral operation it participates in, in my humble opinion, is the movement of drug profits for Hezbollah, How this group can justify, from a purely profit perspective, facilitating terrorist financing, for an entity that has sworn to destroy its coreligionists, is beyond belief. Clearly, there is no end to the syndicate's avarice.

Inasmuch as it is politically incorrect to name and shame this syndicate, and its members, for obvious reasons, its role goes largely unnoticed, though many of its major players are known to American law enforcement agencies, and a large number of them are no longer eligible to enter the United States. Many of them were closely linked to former Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli, who was probably the most corrupt leader Panama has seen in a long time, and that's saying something.

Only when these money launderers are identified, and the names of their banks openly and publicly aired, will the global financial community become aware of the amount of power they wield, and the extent to which they provide material support to sanctioned terrorist organizations who are challenging Western democracies become clear. At this point, law enforcement agencies appear content to merely monitor their operations, while millions of dollars flows into Beirut, and other terrorist coffers. Perhaps this syndicate should be exposed and charged. Otherwise, their amoral facilitation of terror will continue.