US sanctions oil smuggling network allegedly generating millions for Hezbollah

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned three individuals, five companies and two vessels that are allegedly involved in smuggling oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to generate revenue for Hezbollah.

“The network, comprised of Lebanese businessmen and companies and overseen by a senior leader of Hezbollah’s finance team, has facilitated dozens of LPG shipments to the Government of Syria and channeled the profits to Hezbollah. Illicit oil and LPG smuggling operations generate hundreds of millions of dollars for Hezbollah and support the group’s terrorist activities,” the Treasury said.

“Hezbollah continues to launch rockets into Israel and fuel regional instability, choosing to prioritize funding violence over taking care of the people it claims to care about, including the tens of thousands displaced in southern Lebanon,” said U.S. Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley T. Smith.

“Treasury will continue to disrupt the oil smuggling and other financing networks that support Hezbollah’s war machine,” he added.

The Treasury said “two prominent Hezbollah officials involved in these efforts include Muhammad Qasir (Qasir) and Muhammad Qasim al-Bazzal (al-Bazzal), who manage a channel for transporting LPG and other oil distillates on behalf of Hezbollah and directly receive payment for their sale.”

On May 15, 2018, OFAC had designated Qasir for “acting for or on behalf of Hezbollah as a critical conduit for financial disbursements from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) to Hezbollah.”

On November 20, 2018, OFAC designated al-Bazzal, an “associate of Qasir,” for his “support to Hezbollah.”