Hammoud, Hezbollah and Operation Smokescreen

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Operation Smokescreen was an American interagency counterterrorist operation to disrupt fundraising by Hezbollah, that took place in early 1995, ending in 2002. The operation involved the Sheriff's Office in Iredell County, North Carolina, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATF), Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), and the U.S. Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service (DSS).

The operation led to the creation of the North Carolina Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF).

Hezbollah cell leader Mohamad Youssef Hammoud was denied a travel visa by the US embassy in Syria, after which he traveled to Venezuela. After purchasing a forged travel visa, arrived in New York City in 1992. By 1995, Hammoud set up operations in Charlotte, North Carolina, working at a local pizza restaurant. At least two additional members of the Hezbollah Charlotte cell entered the United States with false travel visas from Venezuela purchased for $200, and three had travel visas issued in Cyprus. Half the cell members were born in Lebanon, and the other half were US-born, of Lebanese descent.

Mohamad Youssef Hammoud is said to have been sent to the US by Imad Mughniyah

Assem Hammoud, the ringleader of the Al-Qaeda plot to bomb several New York City tunnels and murder thousands of commuters, had strong ties to Detroit. And to Hezbollah.
Several of Hammoud’s relatives in Detroit–most of whom share his surname–have been indicted in a series of Hezbollah schemes, including money laundering, cigarette smuggling, black marketeering, and a series of other illegal activities all aimed at funding Hezbollah. Hammouds convicted in cigarette smuggling include Mohamad and Chawki Hammoud, Bassem Hammoud, and others–all of them from the Detroit Hezbollah Hammoud syndicate.

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While fundrais­ing for ter­ror­ist orga­ni­za­tions is not lim­ited to cig­a­rette smug­gling, there have been sev­eral cases within the United States in recent years, including:

A group of approx­i­mately 20 men ran a crim­i­nal enter­prise in Dear­born, Michi­gan, traf­fick­ing in con­tra­band cig­a­rettes, cig­a­rette papers and Via­gra, as well as stolen infant for­mula and toi­let paper. Pros­e­cu­tors con­tend that the ring diverted some of the funds to Hezbol­lah. Nat­u­ral­ized U.S. cit­i­zen Karim Has­san Nasser pleaded guilty to rack­e­teer­ing charges in Sep­tem­ber 2006, as did Theodore Schenk of Miami Beach, Florida and Imad Hamadeh of Dear­born Heights.

Dear­born res­i­dent Elias Mohamad Akhdar was sen­tenced in Jan­u­ary 2004 to nearly six years in prison for his role in a cigarette-smuggling ring designed to finance Hezbol­lah. Another Dear­born res­i­dent, Has­san M. Makki, received a sen­tence of nearly five years in prison in con­nec­tion with the scheme.

Car­ole Gor­don and her grand­daugh­ter Brandy Jo Bow­man were among eleven peo­ple charged in Jan­u­ary 2003 for their involve­ment in a cig­a­rette smug­gling ring that fun­neled its pro­ceeds to Hezbol­lah. Both Gor­don and Bow­man pleaded guilty to rack­e­teer­ing charges.

Mohamad Ham­moud was charged in March 2001 for rais­ing funds and con­spir­ing to pro­vide “a vari­ety of items that Hizbal­lah [sic] would use to engage in vio­lent attacks and to film such attacks for use in Hizbal­lah [sic] pro­pa­ganda efforts,” accord­ing to court doc­u­ments. Ham­moud allegedly pro­cured dual-use tech­nolo­gies for Hezbol­lah, includ­ing gog­gles, global posi­tion­ing sys­tems, stun guns, naval equip­ment, nitro­gen cut­ters and laser range find­ers. Ham­moud and his brother, Chawki, were con­victed the fol­low­ing year of pro­vid­ing mate­r­ial sup­port to Hezbol­lah through their cigarette-smuggling ring that know­ingly directed money to the ter­ror­ist organization.

At least three nat­u­ral­ized U.S. cit­i­zens – Said Mohamad Harb, Bassem Youssef Ham­moud and Hus­sein Chahrour – and U.S. cit­i­zen Angela Geor­gia Tsioumas are among a group of nine indi­vid­u­als who bought cig­a­rettes in North Car­olina, shipped them to Michi­gan and sold them at a price lower than the tax-inflated Michi­gan price. From 1995 to 2000, the scheme gen­er­ated over $7 mil­lion used to pro­cure dual-use tech­nolo­gies for Hezbol­lah. Items were report­edly pur­chased for Hezbol­lah in both the U.S. and Canada, includ­ing gog­gles, global posi­tion­ing sys­tems, stun guns, naval equip­ment, nitro­gen cut­ters and laser range find­ers. Harb pleaded guilty to pro­vid­ing mate­r­ial sup­port for ter­ror­ists and rack­e­teer­ing charges. Tisoumas pleaded guilty to rack­e­teer­ing and money laun­der­ing charges. Chahrour pleaded guilty to rack­e­teer­ing charges. Bas­sam Youssef Ham­moud pleaded guilty to traf­fick­ing in con­tra­band cigarettes.