[Jerusalem Post] ax German illicit terror finance policies permitted the US and EU proscribed Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah to run a vast criminal enterprise to raise funds through a money laundering operation in Europe and South America. French prosecutors put fifteen members of the criminal organization on trial on Tuesday in Paris.According to three German media outlets--NDR, WDR and the Suddeutsche Zeitung--two of the accused men lived in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and an additional two men charged lived near the city-state of Bremen in northern Germany.
The members of the crime ring are charged with laundering Columbian narcotics money via a complex finance evasion scheme with the aid of the Lebanese Diaspora.
"Germany is an ideal location for organized money laundering, Sven Giegold, a Green Party member of the European Parliament, said, according to a report on Wednesday in the paper Westfälischen Nachrichten .
He said that "It is fully acceptable that one can pay cash for luxury goods or real estate. There are also no legal limits on the use of cash, " adding that "Cash from dirty sources has a safe home in Germany."
An export trader named Ali Z. in the city of Munster in North Rhine-Westphalia is believed to be one of the main alleged Hezbollah agents who oversaw the illegal narcotics operation that tafficked in cocaine for a Columbian drug cartel and used the profits to purchase weapons for Hezbollah to wage war in Syria.
German media declined to report Ali's last name due to privacy considerations. Ali said he was innocent and his flourishing export business was manipulated by the other accused men on trial. The Hezbollah criminal network was named the "Cedar Affair" by the authorities after Lebanon's prized national tree.