Jump to full article: Vancouver (BC) Sun (ca), 2007-09-21
Author: Kim Bolan, Vancouver Sun
Intro: They are accused of trying to fund terror through the sale of cheap cigarettes and fake Viagra pills.
U.S. law enforcement agencies in Michigan allege five Canadian men -- three from Windsor, Ont., and two from Montreal -- were clandestinely shipping tax-free cigarettes, rolling papers and fake Viagra across borders to sell and raise millions for Hezbollah, the Lebanese extremist group with terrorist ties.
Windsor cabbie Karim Hassan Nasser has pleaded guilty to playing a role in the scheme between 1998 and 2001 and is awaiting sentencing. . . .
According to U.S. court documents obtained by The Vancouver Sun, portions of the $500,000-a-month operation were given to Hezbollah. 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 militant organizations.
Some 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 so-called suicide martyrs.
The Hezbollah supporters are not the only Canadians on the run from U.S. authorities in a terrorist financing case.
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