Hizballah's Global Criminal Operations

The Lebanese Hizballah first emerged in the early 1980s as a loosely affiliated group of Shia militants but has since evolved into a sophisticated organization with several thousand supporters and members, and a multi-dimensional infrastructure. The group receives a significant portion of its funding from Iran, although, several highly publicized media reports released over the last several years revealed Hizballah also receives substantial monetary support from a worldwide network of criminal operations. This endeavor explores four criminal enterprises believed to be used to provide funding to the organization: Intellectual Property Crime, drug smuggling, cigarette smuggling, and the exploitation of the African diamond trade. A brief description of each enterprise is provided along with instances in which Hizballah's members and supporters have been found to be involved in such crimes and some indication of how much money has been funneled to the larger organization. The future of Hizballah's reliance upon this criminal network for financial sustenance is tentatively examined in light of increasing law enforcement attention and recent fighting with Israel.