Terror organization: Hezbollah

Status: Operative, financier – money launderer

Role: Kassem Chams and his international money laundering network move tens of millions of dollars a month in illicit narcotics proceeds on behalf of drug kingpins and facilitate money movements for Hezbollah.

Lebanese narcotics money launderer Kassem Chams is the owner of Chams Exchange, which launders drug proceeds throughout the world on behalf of narcotics trafficking organizations and facilitates money movements for Hezbollah. Chams moves money to and from Australia, Colombia, Italy, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Spain, Venezuela, France, Brazil, and the United States as part of his narcotics money laundering activities. The Chams Money Laundering organization moves tens of millions of dollars a month for designated narcotics traffickers, such as the Colombian criminal group La Oficina De Envigado and Lebanese drug money launderer Ayman Said Joumaa.

Location: Unknown, most likely Lebanon;

Also Known As: Qassem Shams; Kassem Chams;

Activities:

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) identified Lebanese national Kassem Chams and designated the Chams Money Laundering Organization as Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers (SDNT) pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act). OFAC also designated Chams Exchange, a money service business located in Chtaura, Lebanon.

OFAC also identified Kassem Chams and the Chams Money Laundering Organization as an affiliated network of Hizballah pursuant to the Hizballah International Financing Prevention Amendments Act (HIFPAA).

“Kassem Chams and his international money laundering network move tens of millions of dollars a month in illicit narcotics proceeds on behalf of drug kingpins and facilitate money movements for Hizballah. We are targeting the financial infrastructure of these narcotics traffickers as part of this administration’s unprecedented campaign to prevent Hizballah and its global terror affiliates from profiting off violence, corruption, and the drug trade,” said Sigal Mandelker, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. “Treasury continues to aggressively use its tools to cut off global support networks used by Hizballah to finance its nefarious activities.”

Lebanese narcotics money launderer Kassem Chams is the owner of Chams Exchange, which launders drug proceeds throughout the world on behalf of narcotics trafficking organizations and facilitates money movements for Hizballah. Chams moves money to and from Australia, Colombia, Italy, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Spain, Venezuela, France, Brazil, and the United States as part of his narcotics money laundering activities. The Chams Money Laundering organization moves tens of millions of dollars a month for designatednarcotics traffickers, such as the Colombian criminal group La Oficina De Envigado and Lebanese drug money launderer Ayman Said Joumaa. Joumaa was designated under the Kingpin Act in 2011 for laundering the proceeds of narcotics-related and other illicit activities—as much as $200 million per month—through various channels, including bulk cash smuggling operations and Lebanese money exchange houses. Joumaa’s network is also linked to financing Hizballah. La Oficina de Envigado was designated under the Kingpin Act in 2014. Operatives for La Oficina play a major role in organized criminal activity, including narcotics trafficking, both within and outside of Colombia. Transnational criminal groups from outside of Colombia, including Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, have come to rely upon operatives of La Oficina for support in trafficking narcotics throughout the world.