Secret French judicial documents uncovered during an investigation into international drug dealing and its links to Hezbollah have detailed how Dublin criminal Thomas ‘The Boxer’ Mullen was just a handshake away from the terrorist group’s top money man.
The crucial moment in this vivid exposé of the murky world of transnational crime comes in 2015. Mustafa Badreddine, one of two Lebanese Shia cousins who for three decades had led the deadliest Iranian-linked terrorist network in the Middle East, was finally indicted by a UN special tribunal investigating the assassination of the Lebanese prime
Kazakhstan has become the first country, identified as a possible bolthole for Daniel Kinahan, to warn the sanctioned mob boss it will not be used as a safe haven by the cartel.
The US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) cracked the ‘untraceable’ money transfer system used by Johnny Morrissey to launder €200 million in drug cash seven years ago.
In this issue of Iqtisadi: The Middle East Economy, Dr. Moran Levanoni analyzes how the Syrian-Lebanese border area has become one of the most important centers for the production of illegal drugs in the Middle East. Hezbollah's key role in the Middle East drug trade is contextualized within its global empire that includes parts of South America, Africa, and Eurasia.