From Diaspora to Drug Ring: How Hezbollah Built Its Colombian Base

As early as the 1980s, Hezbollah was taking advantage of the chaos created by Colombia’s long-running multiparty civil war to establish a presence in the country. As of the 2000s, the terror group was trafficking large volumes of cocaine from South America’s southern cone and northern Andes regions to the U.S., Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Following the DEA’s 2016 crackdown on Hezbollah’s tri-border network in South America’s southern cone, the group significantly expanded its operations in Colombia and Venezuela.

Author: Matthew Smith

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