The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned 10 individuals for alleged involvement in running a cash smuggling network responsible for transferring cash to Hezbollah.

The OFAC announced sanctions on Thursday against nine Turkish nationals and an Iranian citizen.

According to the Treasury, allegedly uses couriers travelling on commercial airline flights between Lebanon, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates and Iran to move up to hundreds of millions of dollars between jurisdictions.

The OFAC said the network provides Hezbollah with an avenue outside the formal financial system to obtain foreign currency and evade sanctions.

Yunus Alper Yilmaz, a Turkish businessman was identified by authorities as the manager of the courier network.

Investigators claimed that the businessman used Türkiye-based exchange houses and companies to facilitate the operation which were linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF).

Two individuals, Halil Ibrahim Kacmaz and Onder Dede, allegedly handled the collection of the cash from the exchange houses, while another person identified as Vasfi Akyuz ran coordinated logistics and courier service in moving the cash.

Other couriers identified by OFAC are Mehmet Akyuz, Mehmet Acur, Feyyad Karasalih, Masoud Mousafar, Gulay Kaya Savci and Emrah Ayaz. 

The Treasury said they covertly carried cash intended for Hezbollah on commercial flights to Lebanon.

Investigations also discovered that the network was associated with a former IRGC-QF finance official Behnam Shahruyaru.

The sanctions were imposed under Executive Order 13224, the U.S. counterterrorism authority. 

Thomas Pigott, spokesperson for the Department of State in a statement on Thursday, said that the sanctions were imposed from the state’s  counterterrorism authority under the Executive Order 13224 and added that the U.S. will not stop its fight in cracking down Iran’s financial support networks.

Mr Piggot said, “The United States will not relent in targeting Iran’s financial support networks, including those enabling Hizballah to threaten peace, undermine the sovereignty of the Lebanese state, and endanger the security of our regional allies.”