For Hezbollah: Cheap Smokes, Fake Viagra
Kim Bolan,
Vancouver Sun
Published: Friday, September 21, 2007
They are accused of trying to fund terror through the sale of cheap cigarettes and fake Viagra pills.
U.S. law enforcement agencies in Michigan allege five Canadian men — three from Windsor, Ont., and two from Montreal — were clandestinely shipping tax-free cigarettes, rolling papers and fake Viagra across borders to sell and raise millions for Hezbollah, the Lebanese extremist group with terrorist ties.
Windsor cabbie Karim Hassan Nasser has pleaded guilty to playing a role in the scheme between 1998 and 2001 and is awaiting sentencing.
Nasser has negotiated a plea bargain to cooperate with U.S. officials in the prosecution, which may result in his sentence being reduced to months instead of decades.
Gina Balaya, of the U.S. Attorney's office in Detroit, confirmed this week that the other four Canadians are fugitives whose whereabouts are unknown.
Naji Hassan Alawie and Hassan Hassan Nasser had also been living in Windsor, while Hassan Mohamad Srour, and Abdel-Hamid Sinno, were based in Montreal when they were indicted.
According to U.S. court documents obtained by The Vancouver Sun, portions of the $500,000-a-month operation were given to Hezbollah. Some members of the enterprise charged a “resistance tax,” a set amount over black-market price per carton of contraband cigarettes, which their customers were told would be going to militant organizations.
Some members of the enterprise also solicited money from cigarette customers for the “orphans of martyrs” program run by Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon to support the families of so-called suicide martyrs.
The Hezbollah supporters are not the only Canadians on the run from U.S. authorities in a terrorist financing case.
Former Alberta resident Kassem Daher, also known as Abu Zurr, is believed to be hiding out in Lebanon, after being charged in Florida two years ago with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, and providing material support to terrorists.
Court documents allege Daher, a Canadian citizen, and three others “formed a network across North America to fundraise for and recruit mujahedeen to train and fight in various jihad areas including, but not limited to Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya and Somalia.”
The group created two charities to be “used as a cover” and raise and distribute money around the world.
As the U.S. doesn't have an extradition treaty with Lebanon, Daher may never go to trial.
kbolan@png.canwest.com
