Inside the long-running ties between Venezuela and Hezbollah

Inside the long-running ties between Venezuela and Hezbollah

• Maduro's arrest intensifies scrutiny of Venezuela-Hizbollah ties
• Venezuela and Hizbollah cooperated in illicit trade, finance, and logistics
• US officials: Hizbollah's networks in Venezuela still operational

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When Nicolás Maduro, then Venezuela’s foreign minister, travelled through the Middle East in 2007, his public itinerary focused on deepening ties with governments hostile to Washington. Behind the scenes, according to people familiar with the visit, he also met a senior commander of Hezbollah in Damascus.

That meeting, previously unreported, marked an early moment in what US and regional officials say became a durable relationship between Caracas and the Iran-backed militant organisation. It was shaped less by geography than by shared isolation: both Venezuela and Hezbollah were increasingly cut off from the US-led financial system and searching for alternative channels, the Financial Times reported.

Sanctions, ideology and opportunity

The connection took root during the presidency of Hugo Chávez and deepened under Maduro. Intelligence officials and former US investigators say Hezbollah leveraged Venezuela’s diplomatic reach, lax oversight and state institutions to support activities ranging from money laundering to drug trafficking and document fraud.

Washington has long accused Venezuelan officials of facilitating these operations. While Caracas and Hezbollah have consistently denied the allegations, multiple criminal investigations and intelligence assessments have pointed to overlapping networks operating with official cover.

The glue was necessity. US sanctions constrained both Iran and Venezuela, creating incentives to cooperate across illicit trade, finance and logistics.

Project Cassandra and the airline link

Much of what is publicly known about the relationship emerged from “Project Cassandra”, a US Drug Enforcement Administration investigation launched in 2008 to track Hizbollah’s global criminal activities.

According to former DEA officials involved in the probe, operatives linked to Hezbollah obtained Venezuelan passports and travel documents, while Conviasa — the state-owned carrier — provided logistical support. Investigators traced cocaine shipments and bulk cash transfers routed through Caracas and onward to Syria and Lebanon.

Former US officials testified that regular Conviasa flights between Caracas, Damascus and Tehran provided discreet corridors for moving personnel, money and materiel. Venezuelan authorities rejected those claims, but the routes were well documented.

Documents, passports and trusted fixers

Investigators also focused on Venezuela’s internal bureaucracy. Thousands of passports, visas and identity documents were allegedly issued to individuals of Middle Eastern origin, according to testimony by former US officials.

One central figure was Tareck El Aissami, a close Maduro ally later sanctioned by the US, Canada and the EU and indicted on corruption and sanctions-evasion charges. People familiar with US investigations say El Aissami oversaw networks that facilitated travel documents and protection for Hizbollah-linked individuals.

US Treasury sanctions in 2008 targeted Ghazi Nasr Al Din, accusing him of using diplomatic postings in Damascus and Beirut to funnel support to Hizbollah.

The Latin American base

Hizbollah’s presence in Venezuela also drew on longstanding ties with the Lebanese diaspora across Latin America. Intelligence officials say clan-based networks were used to raise funds, launder money and conceal operations, sometimes willingly, sometimes under pressure.

Margarita Island, a duty-free zone off Venezuela’s coast, emerged as a key hub. Former US officials say they saw evidence around 2010 of Hizbollah operatives present in the country, including armed personnel. Some US politicians later described these as training camps, a characterisation that experts dispute.

“It didn’t need camps,” said a former US counterterrorism official familiar with Hizbollah’s global operations. “The infrastructure was already there.”

Crypto, gold and modern finance

More recent investigations suggest the relationship adapted to new tools. A 2024 US court filing alleged that Venezuela-based, Hizbollah-linked gold smugglers and money launderers moved tens of millions of dollars through cryptocurrency platforms.

The Binance was named in one complaint, which the company said it contested, stating it complied with international sanctions laws.

FT reporting has also linked Venezuelan crypto accounts to wallets associated with Tawfiq Al-Law, a US-sanctioned figure accused of moving funds for Hizbollah, the Houthis and entities tied to the Assad regime.

After Maduro’s capture, what changes?

Maduro’s capture by US forces last week and his subsequent indictment on narco-terrorism and drug trafficking charges have intensified scrutiny of these networks. US officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have accused Caracas of serving as a crossroads for Hezbollah and Iran in the western hemisphere.

Yet analysts caution against assuming an immediate disruption. Hizbollah is already weakened by Israeli strikes and financial pressure, but the Venezuelan system that enabled its activities remains largely intact.

“The regime is still there,” said a former US counterterrorism official. “The same structures, the same incentives. It’s not obvious how this translates into a decisive setback.”

A long-running entanglement

For nearly two decades, Venezuela’s isolation and Hezbollah’s global reach reinforced each other. What began as ideological alignment evolved into something more transactional: a partnership shaped by sanctions, illicit trade, and mutual utility.

Whether that network now begins to unravel will depend less on one dramatic arrest than on whether the structures that sustained it are finally dismantled.

So far, history suggests they are resilient.