Recently, Israel has revealed that the Iranian regime has been trafficking gold from Venezuela to finance the terrorist activities of the Lebanese group Hezbollah in the Middle East. According to The Jerusalem Post’s sources, an order signed by the Israeli Defense Minister indicates the connections between Tehran and Caracas, the result of joint work by Israel’s National Bureau for Combating the Financing of Terrorism (NBCTF), the Defense Ministry, the Police, and the Tax Authority. In May last year, dozens of kilograms of gold were smuggled through Mahan Air, a privately owned Iranian airline designated by OFAC. The proceeds of this illicit trade were transferred to the terrorist group Hezbollah. The key player in this smuggling scheme was Seyed Badroddin Naiemael Moosavi, an Iranian businessman who led a secret operation within the Iranian Quds Force, buying gold in Venezuela and using his business and political connections to cover up his illicit financing.
According to Israeli authorities, senior Hezbollah commanders are also allegedly involved in this smuggling scheme. Among them are Ali Kassir, representative of Hezbollah’s Ministry of Economic Affairs in Iran, and Mohammad Kassir, head of Hezbollah’s logistics unit, both of whom are sanctioned by the United States for their involvement in international terrorism. Gold makes up the bulk of Venezuela’s reserves, including USD 1.2 billion of the precious metal deposited with the Bank of England, which has blocked Maduro’s repeated withdrawal attempts.
Musawi was part of an Iranian Quds Force delegation that traveled to Venezuela along with Mahan Air CEO Hamid Evranjad to strengthen Tehran’s ties with Nicolas Maduro’s dictatorship. EMTRASUR’s aircraft, which was used in gold smuggling, has landed in several international destinations, including Moscow when Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, Belarus, and China, among others. In June last year, the aircraft was detained at Ezeiza international airport in Buenos Aires, where the Argentine federal justice system showed that the Boeing belonged to Mahan Air and that after its alleged transfer to EMTRASUR, several trips were made between Caracas and Tehran. This gold smuggling by Iran and Venezuela has been carried out in violation of international sanctions and has made it possible to finance Hezbollah’s terrorist activities in the Middle East.