The US Treasury Department on Thursday accused a Beirut-based bank of involvement in an international money-laundering and drug-trafficking operation with ties to the Lebanese group Hezbollah. The Treasury officially designated Lebanese Canadian Bank as a "primary money laundering concern," saying this might eventually lead to actions that force US financial institutions to cut off some of their ties with the bank.
"Several individuals involved in this global trafficking and money laundering network hold or utilise cash deposit accounts at LCB to move hundreds of millions of dollars monthly in cash proceeds from illicit drug sales into the formal financial system," the Treasury said in a statement. In a related action in January, the Treasury targeted a Lebanon-based drug trafficking and money laundering network suspected of doing as much as $200 million a month in business. At the time, it labelled Ayman Joumaa, as well as nine people and 19 entities connected with his organisation, as Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers.
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