The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on 10 individuals on Thursday for operating a courier network accused of smuggling hundreds of millions of dollars in cash to Hezbollah via commercial airline flights.
The network moved money between Lebanon, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Iran, according to the Office of Foreign Assets Control. Turkish businessman Yunus Alper Yilmaz is accused of running the operation, which was once linked to deceased IRGC-Qods Force finance official Behnam Shahriyari. The sanctions freeze any US-held assets and bar Americans from dealing with the designated individuals.
OFAC also re-designated Hezbollah as a specially designated global terrorist organization, noting the group operates under the command of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force. A State Department official said the updated designation explicitly identifies Hezbollah as an Iranian proxy. The action was taken under Executive Order 13224.