Venezuelan MP trafficking cocaine for sake of Hezbollah
A former member of the Venezuelan
National Assembly and an ally of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has been charged
in New York with narco-terrorism offenses that include cocaine trafficking and
coordination with Hezbollah and Hamas.
Adel El Zabayar was part of
Maduro's Cartel de Los Soles that sought support from FARC, Hezbollah and Hamas
to achieve the objective of "flooding" the United States with
cocaine, according to federal prosecutors.
"Today's charges against
Adel El Zabayar for trading arms for cocaine, and recruiting extremists,
further demonstrates the corruption inside the Maduro regime," said DEA
acting Administrator Timothy J. Shea.
El Zabayar, of Syrian descent,
was photographed in Syria in 2013 alongside troops loyal to Bashar al-Assad,
and the criminal complaint portrays him as a go-between in an alliance that
involved drug runners, the Venezuelan military and groups the U.S. considers
terrorist organizations.
Prosecutors said El Zabayar was
one of several cartel members that received a planeload of military grade
weaponry from Lebanon.
"The men received a Lebanese
cargo plane that was full of weapons, including rocket-propelled grenade
launchers, AK-103s, and sniper rifles, that El Zabayar had obtained while he
was in the Middle East," the criminal complaint said.
"We further allege today,
for the first time, that the Cártel de Los Soles sought to recruit terrorists
from Hizballah and Hamas to assist in planning and carrying out attacks on the
U.S., and that El Zabayar was instrumental as a go-between," U.S. Attorney
for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman said.
Court records described a 2014
meeting at the presidential palace in Caracas during which El Zabayar, Maduro
and others "discussed, among other things, and in substance and in part,
arranging a meeting between the leaders of the FARC and the leaders of
Hizballah and Hamas."
