HEZBOLLAH IN DRUG BIZ

WASHINGTON -- American authorities have amassed evidence for the first time
that an illegal drug operation in the United States was funnelling proceeds
to Mideast terrorist groups such as Hezbollah.

Evidence gathered by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration since a
series of raids in January indicates that a methamphetamine drug operation
in the U.S. Midwest involving men of Middle Eastern descent has been
shipping money back to terrorist groups, officials said.

DEA officials said the men were smuggling large quantities of the chemical
pseudoephedrine into the Midwest from Canada.

Officials said the smuggling involved men with ties to Jordan, Yemen,
Lebanon and other Mideast countries. There is no evidence that any of the
money was connected to the Sept. 11 attacks, officials said.