US accuses ex-Venezuelan lawmaker of drug conspiracy with Hamas, Hezbollah

US prosecutors on Wednesday charged a former Venezuelan lawmaker with taking part with President Nicolas Maduro in a scheme linked to South American and Middle Eastern militant groups to traffic cocaine and military grade weapons. Federal prosecutors in New York also charged Adel al Zabayar, a 56-year-old former member of Venezuela's National Assembly, with helping to recruit Hezbollah and Hamas operatives to plan attacks against US targets. They said in court papers filed in Manhattan that he worked with the Venezuelan criminal organization the Cártel de Los Soles, or 'Cartel of the Suns' in English, and Colombian militant group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, better known by the acronym FARC. 'El Zabayar was part of the unholy alliance of government, military, and FARC members using violence and corruption to further their narco-terrorist aims,' Geoffrey Berman, US attorney for Manhattan, said in a statement. 'The Cártel de Los Soles sought to recruit terrorists from Hezbollah and Hamas to assist in planning and carrying out attacks on the US, and... El Zabayar was instrumental as a go-between.' US prosecutors indicted Maduro and over a dozen current and former Venezuelan officials on charges of narco-terrorism and drug smuggling in March. Maduro has dismissed the charges as a politically motivated fabrication by the administration of US President Donald Trump. A US law enforcement official said El Zabayar was not in American custody.

US accuses ex-Venezuelan lawmaker of drug conspiracy with Hamas, Hezbollah

Federal prosecutors also charged Adel al Zabayar, a former member of Venezuela's National Assembly, with helping to recruit Hezbollah and Hamas operatives to plan attacks against US targets.

Paris mayor may grant honorary citizenship to Gazans

Flooding in southwestern China kills three, 17 missing

US accuses ex-Venezuelan lawmaker of drug conspiracy with Hamas, Hezbollah

Federal prosecutors also charged Adel al Zabayar, a former member of Venezuela's National Assembly, with helping to recruit Hezbollah and Hamas operatives to plan attacks against US targets.

See more on