The Counterfeiting - Terrorism Connection
Here's another counterfeiting case with a connection to terrorism.
According to an ICE press release, on August 23, 2006, Youssef Aoun Bakri, of Dearborn Heights, Michigan, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). The indictment charged Bakri and other defendants with operating a criminal enterprise to traffic in contraband cigarettes and counterfeit goods, producing counterfeit cigarette tax stamps, and laundering money. According to the indictment, some of the profits made from the illegal enterprise were given to Hezbollah. Two other defendants, Imad Majed Hamadeh, of Dearborn Heights and Theodore Schenk, of Miami Beach, had already entered guilty pleas to the indictment.
The indictment charges that between 1996 and 2004, a group of individuals worked together in a criminal enterprise to traffic in contraband cigarettes, counterfeit Zig-Zag rolling papers and counterfeit Viagra, to produce counterfeit cigarette tax stamps, to transport stolen property, and to launder money. The enterprise operated from Lebanon, Canada, China, Brazil, Paraguay and the United States.
The indictment alleges that the defendants were involved with a multi-million dollar a year contraband cigarette-trafficking organization headquartered in the Dearborn, Michigan, area. The indictment charges that some members of the enterprise charged a "Resistance Tax," a set amount over black-market price per carton of contraband cigarettes which their customers were told would be going to Hezbollah. Members of the enterprise also solicited money from cigarette customers for the "orphans of martyrs" program run by Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon to support the families of persons killed in Hezbollah suicide and other terrorist operations. Click here for the complete press release.