Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from the Combatting Terrorism Center at West Point publicaction “Risky Business: The Global Threat Network and the Politics of Contraband” by Scott Helfstein with John Solomon. The complete article is available here.
This study looks at the interrelationship between illicit activity in the economic and political arenas. It offers a different perspective on the global illicit marketplace and the connectivity between crime and terror through examining the relationships of those who produce and profit from fear for financial or political purposes.
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Hammoud’s crown jewel was a cigarette smuggling enterprise that authorities believed netted $8 million by the time it was disrupted in 2002, with much of its proceeds finding their way back to Hezbollah’s coffers in Lebanon. The year 1992, as it would turn out, was pivotal not only for Hammoud but also for Hezbollah. That year, the group decided to participate in Lebanese elections for the first time. It was also the year that Hezbollah would organize and carry out the bombing of the Israeli embassy in Argentina that would kill twenty-three individuals. U.S. law enforcement officials started tracking the activities of Hammoud’s gang in 1995 as they made large cigarette purchases. The authorities investigated the group for six years and produced a series of convictions.
There was nothing particularly special about 1992 in the history of illicit business and terrorist activity, which makes the above vignettes all the more interesting. Each represents a different manifestation or evolution of crime and terrorist activity. Hammoud was not sent to the United States to conduct a terrorist attack but rather to raise funds through criminal activity on behalf of the state-sponsored group Hezbollah. This is a classic example of a terrorist group moving into profit-oriented crime to support the organization….
