U.S. looks at potential danger from Hezbollah
Mohamad Hammoud, his brothers and friends blended into America quickly after arriving here in the early 1990s. They landed jobs delivering pizzas, got married and bought homes in modest neighborhoods. A federal jury decided last year that they also secretly established one of the most sophisticated terrorism fundraising cells detected in recent years in the USA — for Hezbollah, an organization that before al-Qaeda’s Sept. 11 attacks had killed more Americans than any terrorist group. The cell led by Hammoud, 30, a native of Lebanon, generated up to $2 million in profits from smuggling cigarettes purchased in North Carolina and sold in Detroit to elude Michigan’s taxes. Part of the proceeds were used to buy high-tech military equipment that was smuggled into Lebanon for use against Israelis. Full Story