Following up on Rachel Ehrenfeld's analysis of Hizballah and the drug trade, I would add something that I had not known before: The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center has issued a brief dossier outlining the way Hizballah uses the Lebanese-Israeli drug trade to gather intelligence om Israel.
Some highlights:
A number of days after the two IDF soldiers were abducted on July 12, the Lebanese drug dealer contacted the Israeli Bedouin and asked him to collect intelligence about IDF proceedings (for example, the procedures for sending the infantry into Lebanon) and where the Hezbollah's Katyusha rockets had landed. The Lebanese drug dealer claimed that he had to provide Hezbollah with the information so that they would overlook his dealings and enable him to continue his drug trade...The affair again illustrates how Hezbollah uses the Lebanese-Israeli drug trade to recruit agents in Israel and acquire intelligence about Israel . Thus, by exploiting its supervision and control of the Lebanese drug barons in the Beka'a Valley and south Lebanon, Hezbollah has woven a net of contacts with Israeli drug dealers and other criminals.
The entire document can be found here.
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