Federal officials reported that a Lebanese and
Belgian national thought to be a significant financier of the militant
organisation Hezbollah, which is supported by Iran, was detained on Friday in
Bucharest, the capital of Romania.
Mohammad Ibrahim Bazzi, 58, who was designated
a "global terrorist" by the US in 2018 after a $10 million reward for
information on his whereabouts, is believed to have given Hezbollah millions of
dollars over the years, according to officials.
US Attorney Breon Peace in Brooklyn stated
that allegations in an indictment returned last month in federal court in
Brooklyn called for the extradition of Bazzi and Talal Chahine, a 78-year-old
Lebanese citizen.
Muhammad Bazzi believed he could covertly
transfer hundreds of thousands of dollars from the United States to Lebanon
without the authorities noticing, according to a release from Peace.
Bazzi and Chahine were accused of conspiring
to get Americans to trade illegally with a foreign terrorist organisation and
of money laundering. Who will represent the men when they get to the United
States is yet unknown.
The defendants "attempted to offer
continuous financial assistance to Hezbollah, a foreign terrorist group
responsible for death and destruction," said to acting Drug Enforcement
Administration chief Daniel J. Kafafian in New Jersey.
According to the statement announcing his
detention, Bazzi was detained by Romanian police enforcement after arriving in
Bucharest on Friday.
According to the authorities, Bazzi and
Chahine planned to coerce or compel a person in the US to sell their stake in
some Michigan real estate assets and secretly transfer the earnings to Bazzi
and Chahine in Lebanon.
According to investigators, the individuals
were overheard on conversations being recorded suggesting various strategies to
hide from American law enforcement officials that Bazzi was the origin and
final destination of the sale's earnings and that the men were engaged.