Hezbollah’s Rise to Power: How Global Crime Funded a Terrorist Empire | All Episodes | Documentary

It’s widely recognised as a terrorist organisation, responsible for many atrocities including the Beirut port blast and destabilisation of Lebanon. But 42 years on, the ‘Party of God’, remains stronger than ever. It has transformed itself from a small paramilitary group backed by Iran into an omnipotent political party with the largest private army in the world. A ’state within a state’, whose extensive charity network ensures the popular support of the Shiite community while its military wing attempts to redraw the borders of the region and erase Israel from the map.

But in 2008, after amassing evidence that Hezbollah was earning up to $1 billion a year running an international crime syndicate trafficking in drugs, money laundering and other criminal activities, the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) tried to ’bring down Hezbollah’. Their secret mission was called ‘Project Cassandra’, and it ran for over eight years, using wiretaps, undercover operations and informants to map Hezbollah’s illicit networks and cut off funding. Then, suddenly, it was shut down: sacrificed on the altar of realpolitik to accommodate the US-Iranian nuclear deal.

This three part series tells the story of ‘Project Cassandra’, through the testimonies of DEA agents and other people involved. It’s a tale that helps explain the history and rise of Hezbollah, making a complex geopolitical story accessible to a larger audience.

This film was first released in 2023

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