Terror organization: Hezbollah;

Status: A key figure in money laundering, drug trafficking and financing that operates mainly in South America and Lebanon;

Role: Narco – terrorism, connected to the most important figures in the organization, behind giant scale of drug trafficking for Hezbollah. Had access to a bank account of Martyr’s organization of Hezbollah which contains 500 million USD;

Location: Lebanon, South America;

Place of Birth: Jebchit

Citizenship: Lebanon;

Date Of Birth: October 05, 1972;

Nationality: Lebanese;

Passport: 3562438;

Activities:
The US authorities have described Nasser Abbas Basmad as “the key figure in money laundering, trafficking and financing inside Hezbollah”. Bahmad, now a fugitive and thought to be hiding out in Lebanon, is understood to be a prominent financier of the Shiite militant group in Latin America, with a mission to raise funds for the organisation overseas.

Separately, Basmad is also a Khomeinist ideological cadre. He has a film production company in Lebanon and produced movies such as El Emir (The Prince), which was screened at the Islamic Resistance Film Festival held in Tehran in 2014. Brazilian intelligence has also published photographs of him together with former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

In January 2021, the Dubai-based news channel Al-Arabiya publicly accused a Lebanese woman, Hanan Hamdan, of co-masterminding the drug operation together with Bahmad. The pair, it said, were partners in three separate companies registered in Australia: GC Garden Charcoal, officially a purveyor of barbecue charcoal, Garden Shi Sha and Knight, for shisha tobacco and cigarettes respectively. Hamdan also established an Iraq-based company Global Trading Group (GTG) PTY Ltd, which was used to create two further subsidiaries, CG Charcoal Garden and Master Nanoking Argento.

Subsequent investigations revealed that GTG was a Hezbollah shell company being used for drug trafficking to several countries, with the cocaine disguised as shisha charcoal. The company’s own documentation shows that the owners of Global Trading Group in Paraguay were Nasser Bahmad and Ali Fawaz, a man with Paraguayan nationality who also lives in the Tri-Border Area.

Another of Nasser Bahmad’s close associates in the area was a Lebanese citizen named Adham Tabaja. The US government sanctioned him in 2015 for money laundering and drug trafficking for Hezbollah. Tabaja was registered as a shareholder of Al-Manar Holding Group, the group in charge of Hezbollah’s official TV channel in Beirut, and a partner in Al-Walaya TV, which disseminates pro-Hezbollah propaganda in Lebanon.