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The Obama administration 'SABOTAGED a DEA operation to stop Hezbollah smuggling drugs into the US and helped the militant group grow into a global threat so the Iran nuke deal would go ahead'
- Former president's officials accused of opening doors for cocaine traffickers and money launderers
- DEA led a complex operation called Project Cassandra to bring down militants
- Claimed Obama's people erected roadblocks, hindering agents
- As the Iran nuclear deal neared its agreement, it became harder for the DEA
- Once the deal was done, task force was scrapped
- One US government operative said: 'Hezbollah operates like the Gambino crime family on steroids'
- White House says it shows a contrast between Trump's 'success against ISIS' and 'Obama's appeasement of terrorists'
Published: 05:54 EST, 18 December 2017 | Updated: 13:20 EST, 18 December 2017
The Obama administration has been accused of sabotaging an operation to stop Hezbollah smuggling drugs into the US so that the nuclear deal with Iran could proceed.
In a stunning exposé by Politico, the former President's Justice Department is said to have facilitated the Lebanese terror group's trafficking and money laundering operations by blocking the arrest of key Hezbollah figures.
Donald Trump's White House slapped at his predecessor Sunday night, with press secretary Sarah Sanders tweeting that the story shows a contrast of 'President Trump's success against ISIS vs. President Obama's appeasement of terrorists.'
And a Republican House leadership aide told DailyMail.com on Monday that the Obama White House 'was the worst of the worst when it came to fighting terrorism in the ways that mattered most.'
The Drug Enforcement Administration in 2008 began a complex operation called Project Cassandra to tackle Hezbollah - which was founded in the 1980s by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
But as the Obama administration worked towards a deal to stop Iran's nuclear program in return for the lifting of economic sanctions, the DEA's work got more difficult, Politico reports.
It is claimed Obama's people threw down a number of roadblocks, effectively paving the way for Hezbollah's $1bn-a-year illegal activities including cocaine smuggling in partnership with the Zeta cartel to continue.
DEA agents claim the Obama administration stopped them arresting key figures linked to Hezbollah as an agreement on the Iran nuclear deal approached - and scrapped Project Cassandra entirely once the terms were agreed in 2015.
+8Barack Obama's (pictured) administration has been accused of sabotaging an operation to stop Hezbollah smuggling drugs into the US so that a nuclear deal with Iran could proceed
Hezbollah's $1 billion-a-year international criminal operation
- International drug smuggling operation founded by mastermind of bombing of Beirut bombing that killed 241 US marines in 1983
- The organisation is now expected to be working with the Zetas cartel to smuggle tonnes of cocaine into the United States
- One of the world's top cocaine traffickers called 'The Ghost' is a Hezbollah operative
- Same man accused of selling chemical weapons to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad
- Hezbollah launders its drugs profits by allegedly shipping used cars from America to Africa and selling them
- Money laundering also takes place through South America, the Middle East and the US
- Lebanese arms dealer Ali Fayad is a suspected top Hezbollah operative, according to Politico, and is believed to report to Vladimir Putin
- Fayad is accused of plotting the murder of American government workers
- Venezuala’s vice president Tareck El Aissami is believed to be deeply involved in cocaine trafficking and is an ally of Hezbollah
- Hezbollah is believed to be providing weapons and training to anti-American Shiite militias
- An alleged Hezbollah drugs kingpin is based in Colombia and is accused of working with the Zetas cartel to smuggle cocaine into the US
- Proceeds from the operations were allegedly used to design new IEDs that killed US troops in Iraq
+8Terror group: Hezbollah's chief Hassan Nasrallah says 'Death to America' and calls for 'millions of martyrs' to march to Jerusalem in a televised speech
The nuclear deal agreed to scrap crippling economic sanctions on Iran in return for a promise from to Tehran to stop nuclear development.
By putting themselves between the DEA and Hezbollah, the Obama administration helped the militant group grow into a global security threat that is suspected of designing IEDs used to kill American troops, the report said.
The undercover DEA investigation's leaders sought permission for a number of significant prosecutions, arrests and financial sanctions, but Justice and Treasury Department officials delayed after Obama was re-elected in 2012, Politico said.
In some cases, they were hindered and some requests from the DEA's Counter facility in Chantilly, Virginia, were flatly rejected.
This hampered Project Cassandra's efforts to bring the Hezbollah hierarchy to their knees.
They included one of the world's biggest cocaine traffickers who also supplied Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with chemical weapons.
Talking anonymously, some former Obama officials told Politico the decisions were made to improve relations with Iran.
+8Shortly after the three-part story went live, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted that it depicted Barack Obama's 'appeasement of terrorists'
David Asher, who helped establish Project Cassandra, told Politico: 'This was a policy decision, it was a systematic decision.
'They serially ripped apart this entire effort that was very well supported and resourced, and it was done from the top down.'
He added that the closer Obama for to finalizing the Iran nuclear deal, the more difficult the DEA's job became.
The weapons agreement was announced in January 2016, which coincided with Project Cassandra officials being moved onto other assignments.
Investigators were on the verge of homing in on dozens of important figures who acted as facilitators for the various criminal operations in Hezbollah's pockets, according to Politico.
'Hezbollah operates like the Gambino crime family on steroids
The report named a man with glasses called Abdallah Safieddine as Hezbollah's key point of connection.
He worked from his base in Tehran, and Jack Kelly - a veteran DEA supervisory agent - compared him to the notoriously slippery John Gotti aka Teflon Don.
Kelly told Politico: 'Hezbollah operates like the Gambino crime family on steroids, and he is its John Gotti.
'Whatever Iran needs, Safieddine is in charge of getting it for them.'
After more than a decade of tensions with the West, Tehran signed a landmark deal with world powers to curb its nuclear activity in exchange for the gradual lifting of crippling economic sanctions. President Donald Trump has threatened to scrap the accord.
The revelations also come just a week after the leader of Hezbollah swore to 'end' the US, calling for 'martyr' terror attacks in Jerusalem after Trump's recognition of the city as the Israeli capital.
Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of the Lebanese militant group, made the impassioned televised speech to thousands of followers, inciting the crowd to chant 'Death to America'.
This was followed by a warning to Lebanon from Israel's Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz, who said that if Hezbollah attacked Israel, the country would return the whole country 'back to the Stone Age'.
In his speech this week, translated by the Washington D.C.-based Middle East Media Research Institute, Hezbollah leader Nasrallah appeared to urge followers to carry out terror attacks in Jerusalem.
'It is time that everybody knows that America is not the sponsor of peace in Palestine and the region,' he said in the televised speech
'America is the sponsor of terrorism, of occupation, of Judaization, of deportation, of burning, of destruction and of civil strife.
'America created ISIS and the takfiri [apostate] groups.'
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