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'''Project Cassandra''' was an Obama era [[Drug Enforcement Administration]] (DEA) operation launched after evidence had been amassed that [[Hezbollah]] transformed itself from a Middle East-focused military and political organization into a global crime syndicate that some investigators believed was collecting $1 billion a year from [[narcotic]]s and weapons trafficking, [[money laundering]] and other criminal activities.
Between 2008-2016 agents working out of a top-secret DEA facility in Virginia, used wiretaps, undercover operations and informants to map Hezbollah’s illicit networks, with the help of 30 U.S. and foreign security agencies.
Agernts followed [[cocaine]] shipments, some from [[Latin America]] to [[West Africa]] and on to [[Europe]] and the [[Middle East]], and others through [[Venezuela]] and [[Mexico]] to the [[United States]]. They tracked the river of dirty cash as it was laundered. And with the help of some key cooperating witnesses, the agents traced the [[conspiracy]], to the innermost circle of Hezbollah and its state sponsors in [[Iran]].
As Project Cassandra reached higher into the hierarchy of the conspiracy, [[Obama administration]] officials threw an increasingly insurmountable series of roadblocks in its way. When Project Cassandra leaders sought approval for some significant investigations, [[prosecution]]s, [[arrest]]s and financial sanctions, officials at the Justice and [[Treasury department]]s delayed, hindered or rejected their requests.
The [[Justice Department]] declined requests by Project Cassandra and other authorities to file criminal charges against major players such as Hezbollah’s high-profile envoy to Iran, a Lebanese bank that allegedly laundered billions in alleged drug profits, and a central player in a U.S.-based cell of the Iranian paramilitary Quds force. And the [[State Department]] rejected requests to lure high-value targets to countries where they could be arrested.
“This was a policy decision, it was a systematic decision,” said David Asher, Veteran U.S. illicit finance expert sent from [[Pentagon]] to Project Cassandra to attack the alleged Hezbollah criminal enterprise., who helped establish and oversee Project Cassandra as a [[Defense Department]] illicit finance analyst. “They serially ripped apart this entire effort that was very well supported and resourced, and it was done from the top down.”
==Hezbollah==
==Hezbollah==