Cruise Bruise Blog
June 6, 2009
June 6, 2009
U.S. Cruise Ship Passengers Arrested For Drug Smuggling Tied To Terrorism
As reported in late April, three American women from Pennsylvania were arrested in Curacao with 20 pounds of cocaine.
During that arrest other locals were arrested. From there, the arrests branched out, and in all 17 were arrested as part of this drugs and money-laundering organization with international branches, thought to be responsible for the import and export of at least 2,000 kilos of cocaine per year.
As police followed the money and the drugs, the chain took them right to Hezbollah.
Money from the drug trade ultimately went to Lebanon and was used to buy arms and finance terrorist operations.
Hezbollah has close relations with Iran. It also has ties with the leadership in Syria, specifically with President Hafez al-Assad (until his death in 2000) and his son and successor Bashar al-Assad. Although Hezbollah and Hamas are not organizationally linked, Hezbollah provides military training as well as financial and moral support to the Sunni Palestinian group.
The U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, Netherlands and Israel all consider Hezbollah a terrorist organization.
Just that quick. three American women could find themselves in Gitmo, with no legal representation, trying to explain whether or not they knew they were working for a terrorist organization.
