DRUG MONEY LINKED TO MID-EAST GROUPS

Officials say some of the drug money goes to Hezbollah Federal
investigators say they have established for the first time that drug
traffickers in the United States are channelling millions of dollars to
Middle Eastern militant groups.

The head of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Asa Hutchinson,
told an American television network that the link was uncovered during the
course of an operation which targeted methamphetamine production in the US
earlier this year.

It is not known how much money from the drug sales is being sent to Middle
Eastern groups, but it is estimated to be millions of dollars, officials say.

But Mr Hutchinson said that a significant proportion of the money was going
to organisations like Hezbollah, which the US considers a terrorist
organisation.

Drug ring

More than 130 people, many of them of Middle Eastern origin, are reported
to have been arrested after a nationwide sweep earlier this year.

Officials say the suspects were smuggling large amounts of the drug
pseudoephedrine - a chemical used to make methamphetamine - from Canada
into the Midwest.

The drug ring was broken up in January as part of a DEA investigation
called Operation Mountain Express.

Authorities say some of the proceeds from the drug sales were being sent to
accounts traced to Hezbollah and accounts in Yemen and Lebanon.

Officials say it is the first time they have evidence that money from drug
sales in the US is funding terror groups abroad.

"We've known for decades that there's been a connection between illegal
drug trafficking and terrorist activity. That was true in Colombia and in
Afghanistan," Mr Hutchinson said.

"But we didn't see the drug sales in the United States funding terrorist
activity.

"There is increasing intelligence information from the investigation that
for the first time alleged drug sales in the United States are going in
part to support terrorist organisations in the Middle East."