US launches task force to investigate Hizballah 'drug terrorism'

A special task force is being created by the US Justice Department to investigate what it called "narcoterrorism" by the powerful Lebanese movement Hizballah.

The unit will comprise specialists on money-laundering, drug trafficking, terrorism and organised crime, targeting Iran ally Hizballah's sprawling network, whose reach extends across Africa and into Central and South America, the department announced on Thursday.

"The Justice Department will leave no stone unturned in order to eliminate threats to our citizens from terrorist organisations and to stem the tide of the devastating drug crisis," said Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

"The team will initiate prosecutions that will restrict the flow of money to foreign terrorist organisations as well as disrupt violent international drug trafficking operations."

The move comes amid a stepped-up effort to battle Iran's growing influence in the Middle East and expanded military capabilities of Hizballah, a key player in Lebanese politics.

But Sessions said the creation of the Hizballah Financing and Narcoterrorism Team was also a response to criticisms that former president Barack Obama held back from cracking down on Hizballah's global networks, investigated under the previous Project Cassandra, in order to achieve the nuclear deal with Iran.

"The HFNT will begin by assessing the evidence in existing investigations, including cases stemming from Project Cassandra, a law enforcement initiative targeting Hizballah's drug trafficking and related operations," the department said.

Officials in Washington and US allies Saudi Arabia and Israel, have increasingly raised the alarm over Hizballah's growing power in Lebanon and around the world.

Hizballah has especially played a detrimental role in the Syrian conflict, backing President Bashar al-Assad who is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Syrians when he led the country to war after crushing peaceful protests that began in 2011.

On Wednesday, former top Treasury Department sanctions official Juan Zarate told Congress that Hizballah's drug smuggling and money laundering operations are global in scale.

"Recent actions by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Treasury to dismantle networks of Hizballah's 'Business Affairs Component' have exposed financial and trade nodes that the Hizballah operates and led to arrests and enforcement actions around the world," he told a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.