Arizona: Hezbollah Using Drug Routes to Infiltrate US

AzBiz.com: Now Arizona Has More Than One War in Its Backyard: Hezbollah Using Drug Routes to Infiltrate US

By Lionel Waxman
Inside Tucson Business
Friday, April 23rd, 2010

... Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese group, is on its way to involving Tubac, Tucson, Phoenix and other parts of Arizona in the Arab-Israeli conflict as well as the drug trade. Where are our NIMBYs?

For at least four years, the Hispanic American Center for Economic Research has been keeping an eye on a Hezbollah militia that has taken root in South America in the what’s known as the tri-border region of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil. According to reports, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials say Hezbollah is relying on “the same criminal weapons smugglers, document traffickers and transportation experts as the drug cartels.”

The drug war is here. It’s real and very personal to Southern Arizonans. It was especially personal to Robert Krentz, the Cochise County rancher who was killed on his own land March 27, most likely by a drug runner. It is not surprising that crime is rife along the border, and when I say along the border, I mean within 150 miles of the border. Can you really sit comfortably in your living room in Tubac and believe the war isn’t “here” yet? ...

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