U.S. federal prosecutors have indicted three of the men, Siavosh Henareh, Bachar Wehbe and Cetin Aksu, for conspiring to sell heroin in the US in order to use the proceeds to purchase weapons for Hezbollah. The fourth man, Taza Gul Alizai, is suspected of similarly selling drugs in order to purchase guns for the Taliban. The U.S. State Department considers both Hezbollah and the Taliban terrorist organizations.
Henareh and Aksu were arrested in Bucharest, Romania, and are currently awaiting extradition to the U.S. Wehbe and Alizai were detained in the Maldives and were transferred to the custody of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Both pleaded not guilty to all charges at a U.S. federal court in New York.
Henareh, Wehbe and Aksu were indicted after the execution of sting operations where they attempted to purchase surface-to-air missiles from DEA confidential informants posing as associates of Hezbollah.
The suspects held a series of meetings with the informants in Turkey, Romanian and Greece, where Henareh agreed to ship hundreds of kilos of heroin in exchange for weapons. The suspects made their intention to purchase AK-47 and M4 assault rifles, ammunition and missiles in a written agreement with the informants last February, according to the indictment.
Henareh, Aksu and Wehbe face life in prison for conspiracy to distribute heroin. Aksu and Wehbe are also charged with conspiracy to support a terrorist organization and acquire anti-aircraft missiles which has a minimum 25 year sentence if convicted.
Alizai is accused of attempting to sell 10 kg of heroin and six AK-47 rifles to a DEA informant posing as a Taliban member in 2010. Alizai indicated that the heroin was to be sent to the U.S. for distribution and the proceeds would go to the Taliban along with weapons he acquired.
Alizai is charged with narcoterroism and conspiracy of and distribution of heroin, each of which carry a maximum life sentences.
DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart said that these arrests have effectively "dismantled two dangerous and complex networks, stopped efforts to arm Hezbollah and Taliban terrorists and prevented massive amounts of heroin from reaching illicit markets around the world."
The arrests occurred on the same day that the Obama Administration announced is new Strategy to Fight Transnational Organized Crime. According to Derek Maltz, special agent in charge of the DEA Special Operations Division, the probe was a response to the heightened awareness that drug dealers and organized crime are funding terrorism.
Maltz estimates that more than 50 percent of international terrorists organizations are involved with and funded by drug trafficking. A 2008 United Nations reports stated that the Taliban receives a large portion of its funding from trafficking opium.
