by John Solomon, The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Federal authorities have amassed evidence for the first time that an illegal drug operation in the United States was funneling proceeds to Middle East terrorist groups.
Evidence gathered by the Drug Enforcement Administration since raids in January indicates that a methamphetamine drug operation in the Midwest involving men of Middle Eastern descent has been shipping money to terrorist groups, officials said.
“There is increasing intelligence information from the investigation that for the first time alleged drug sales in the United States are going in part to support terrorist organizations in the Middle East,” DEA administrator Asa Hutchinson said Friday.
DEA officials said the men, most of whom were indicted on drug charges after their arrests in January, were smuggling large quantities of the chemical pseudoephedrine from Canada into the Midwest.
Pseudoephedrine, used in some cold and allergy medications, is an essential ingredient in the creation of methamphetamine.
Officials said the smuggling was conducted through Chicago and Detroit and involved several men with ties to Jordan, Yemen, Lebanon and other Middle East countries. There is no evidence that any of the money was connected to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, officials said.
The U.S. drug ring sold pseudoephedrine to Mexican-based meth operations in the Western United States, authorities said.
The Middle Eastern men diverted some of the proceeds to the Middle East to accounts authorities have begun to connect to terrorist groups, DEA officials said. Some of the connections involved the Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah, and some of the money has been traced to accounts in Lebanon and Yemen, officials said.
DEA officials said they don’t know how much money was funneled from the drug sales to the terrorist groups but that the pseudoephedrine sales amounted to millions of dollars.
“A significant portion of some of the sales are sent to the Middle East to benefit terrorist organizations,” Hutchinson said.
The drug ring was broken up Jan. 10 as part of a massive DEA investigation called Operation Mountain Express, which has smashed several major methamphetamine operations in the past two years. Arrests were made in Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, Phoenix and several California cities.
The raids have resulted in criminal charges against 136 people and the seizure of nearly 36 tons of pseudoephedrine, 179 pounds of methamphetamine, $4.5 million in cash, eight real-estate properties, and 160 cars used by the drug gangs.
Hutchinson has been warning for months that illegal drug money provides a compelling opportunity for terror groups to siphon support from the United States, but the DEA investigation provided the first evidence of a direct flow of money.
The evidence of the terror ties emerged after the arrests. U.S. authorities said some defendants charged with drug violations could face additional charges.