Obama administration ignored Hezbollah’s narcotic trade in the US, claims an American website

Washington/ Tehran : Former US president Barack Obama overlooked the incursion and sprawling drug trafficking networks in the US controlled by the militant organisation Hezbollah, a shocking claim reported by an American website Politico. This report published by Politico drew sharp reactions from the US and Israel. Two months ago, President Donald Trump had announced to “decertify” the nuclear deal with Iran and had sent the legislation to the Senate to revise it.

In April 2015, the US along with five permanent members of UN Security Council, European Union and Iran had announced an important agreement on Iran’s nuclear program. While imposing restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program through this agreement, its economic sanctions imposed earlier were lifted. President Barack Obama and his administration had taken special efforts to conclude this agreement, to which Republican party, Israel and Saudi Arabia had heavily criticised, further straining bilateral relations of the US and Israel. Donald Trump after assuming the presidency of United States in 2016, declared the Iran deal to be one of the worst deals that US entered into and had vowed to abandon it. This invoked strong reactions from the international community. Iran, Russia and European countries had declared to not support the US on this issue. On this background, ex-President Obama turning a blind eye towards the activities of Iran-backed militant organisation, Hezbollah, has assumed significance.

Iran-backed Hezbollah, has built massive drug trafficking networks in the US and Latin America with the help of various groups. It is estimated that annually Hezbollah earns about 1billion dollars through the narcotics trade and it has come to the fore that this money is used by Hezbollah to buy weapons and ammunition.

US security and intelligence agencies had gathered strong evidences and had planned a strong counter operation. ‘Drug Enforcement Agency’ had reached out to security agencies of other countries to assist it. In 2008,‘Project Cassandra’ was launched to counter the illicit drug and weapons trafficking trade network of Hezbollah.

This operation needed an approval of Justice and Treasury departments of the US. However, Obama administration officials threw an increasingly insurmountable series of roadblocks in the operation. A former defence department analyst claimed it to be a part of policy decision. Sources revealed that the delay in proceedings was to ensure building better relations with Iran.

Catherine Boyer, a senior official in Obama administration have testified these facts during a hearing in the Senate, claimed website Politico.