Tri-border organized crime stirs concern

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SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia -- Concerns about renewed criminal activity in South America's tri-border area have prompted calls for a joint intelligence center to monitor the borders.

"The government is worried about increasing organized crime in the zone, which is the reason that it's taking measures," said a spokesman for Brazil's Federal Police, which this month announced the creation of a unit to upgrade border controls with Argentina and Paraguay from a new base in Foz D'Iguazu.

The calls come amid reports from Argentina's police that about a dozen members of Hezbollah have arrived from Lebanon in recent weeks. Arab groups have long been suspected of using the tri-border area to launder money for terrorist organizations in the Middle East.

Although the reports concerning Hezbollah cannot be independently verified, a member of the Islamic militant group's political committee, Muafak Jamal, told the Argentine newspaper La Nacion last week that his organization raises funds in South America.

"Money for Hezbollah comes from Argentina," said Mr. Jamal, adding that "money comes not only from the Muslim community in Argentina, but also from Christian Lebanese who are committed to the reconstruction effort."

The statement caused alarm among Jewish leaders, who recall the suicide bombings that targeted the Israeli Embassy and a synagogue in Argentina's capital, Buenos Aires, in the 1990s, killing more than 100 people and wounding more than 300.

"We have strong suspicions that the [money] transfers go to terrorist activities of Hezbollah," said Jorge Kirszenbaum, president of the Delegation of Israeli-Argentine Associations, citing information provided by "various intelligence services which monitor activities in the triple frontier."

A U.S. government official, who has worked in the area and asked not to be identified, said Islamic militants extract local financing in various ways. "They recruit from mosques, strong-arm Arab businessmen and feed off narco-traffic, smuggling and criminal racketeering," the official said.

Assad Barakat, the owner of a shopping center in the Paraguayan border city of Ciudad del Este, has been jailed on charges of laundering $2.5 million that financed the 1994 bomb attack on the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association.

A narco-trafficking ring uncovered in Ecuador last year has been linked to Syrian and Lebanese nationals. The group was channeling 70 percent of its proceeds to Hezbollah, said Ecuador's anti-drug police chief, Edison Ramos.

But U.S. diplomats have complained about a "lack of follow-up" in most terrorist investigations in the region. Israel's ambassador to Argentina, Benjamin Oron, has described investigations into the 1990s suicide bombings as "full of holes," pointing out that not a single suspect has been tried.