A seemingly small-time drug ring busted this week in Los Angeles was actually targeted for funding the Lebanese militia group Hezbollah, the Daily News has learned. Prosecutors left out the terror tie when they announced Tuesday that federal agents and local cops had arrested a dozen people for allegedly peddling cocaine and counterfeit clothing in Bell, Calif.
U.S. Attorney's Office announced the names of the dozen people that were arrested as follows:
Ali Khalil Elreda , 32, of Bell;
Mohamad Elreda, Ali's brother, 25, of Bell
Susanne Elreda, Ali's sister, 34, of Smyrna, Ga.
Hussein Saleh Saleh, 37, of Bell
Robert Bell, 36, of Corona
Dalisa Johnson, 37, of Corona
Moussa Matar, 48, of Cudahy
Mohamad Matar, Moussa's son, 28, of Cudahy
Ali Matar, Mohamad's twin brother, 28, of Cudahy
Juan Gonzalez, 26, of Lynwood
Frankie Higuea, 24, of Downey
Crystal Hill, 25, of Hawthorne Two additional defendants, Epifanio Mercado, 29, of Perris, and Ricardo Nava, of El Monte, were arrested over the weekend, prosecutors said. Three fugitives still remain at-large: Hassan Saleh Salehy, Hussein's brother, 36; Juan Galindo, age unavailable, of Cudahy; and Alfonso Bernal Barron, age and hometown unavailable.
The focus of the federal investigation was Ali Khalil Elreda, 32, who was detained at Los Angeles International Airport last year, accused of trying to smuggle $120,000 in money orders and cashier's checks, hidden in a child's toy, to Lebanon, according to an indictment and an affidavit filed in the case.
Several sources familiar with the investigation said the predominantly Arab-American and Latin gang was believed to have smuggled its crime cash to the Syrian and Iranian-backed group which is listed by US as a terrorist organization. "This was a classic case of terrorism financing, and it was pretty sophisticated how they did it," a source close to Operation Bell Bottoms told The News.
The Justice Department's national security division and an FBI counterterrorism agent have signed all the court filings. Because information linking the gang to Hezbollah came from classified intelligence, the alleged ringleader and "his siblings and associates" face criminal charges instead of a terror rap. 
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