US announces $10m reward for information on South American Hezbollah networks

Rewards for Justice programme requests information focused on tri-border area of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay

Hezbollah members in Beirut, Lebanon. The group was designated a foreign terrorist organisation in 1997 by the US. EPA

The US on Monday announced a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the disruption of Hezbollah financial markets in South America.

The State Department's Rewards for Justice programme issued the announcement, with the request focused on the “tri-border area” of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.

The announcement said the Lebanon-based group generates revenue in the area through money laundering, drug trafficking, smuggling and counterfeiting, among other activities.

It added the group also generates its estimated $1 billion in annual revenue from commercial activities across Latin America, including construction, import and export of goods, and property sales.

The Rewards for Justice programme said such illicit activity is supplemented by financial support from Iran, international investment, donor networks and corruption.

The tri-border area has traditionally been associated with organised crime, particularly financing terrorist networks that take advantage of weak public institutions and major urban centres nearby.

Argentinian authorities believe the two most devastating terrorist attacks committed on South American soil – the bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992 and the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association in 1994 – were organised and planned by Iran and Hezbollah there.

The US designated Hezbollah a foreign terrorist organisation in 1997.