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	[[File:Ali Fayyad.~~webp~~\|thumb\|upright=1.25\|alt=~~Editorial illustration~~: ~~Ali Fayyad\|Original editorial portrait guided~~ by ~~an identified public photograph; distinct defendants’ outcomes are represented separately~~.]]		[[File:Ali Fayyad.jpg\|thumb\|upright=1.25\|alt=Prague skyline at dawn. View from Charles bridge to the East.\|City where Fayyad and associates were arrested in the undercover arms case; not a pictured negotiation venue. Photo: Petar Milošević ([https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Prague_skyline_at_dawn.jpg Wikimedia Commons]), [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 CC BY-SA 4.0].]]

	'''Ali Fayyad''', also spelled Ali Fayad, is a Lebanese-Ukrainian arms trader at the center of a 2014 undercover weapons case in Prague. U.S. accounts describe negotiations with people posing as representatives of FARC, followed by the arrests of Fayyad and associates Khaled El Merebi and Faouzi Jaber. Fayyad and Merebi were released in 2016, while Jaber was extradited to the United States and pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide [[United States material-support offenses\|material support]] to FARC. The defendants’ different outcomes are essential to the history of the case.<ref name="r1" /><ref name="r2" />		'''Ali Fayyad''', also spelled Ali Fayad, is a Lebanese-Ukrainian arms trader at the center of a 2014 undercover weapons case in Prague. U.S. accounts describe negotiations with people posing as representatives of FARC, followed by the arrests of Fayyad and associates Khaled El Merebi and Faouzi Jaber. Fayyad and Merebi were released in 2016, while Jaber was extradited to the United States and pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide [[United States material-support offenses\|material support]] to FARC. The defendants’ different outcomes are essential to the history of the case.<ref name="r1" /><ref name="r2" />

Editor: New article: Ali Fayyad

2026-10-21T17:47:34Z

New article: Ali Fayyad

New page

[[File:Ali Fayyad.webp|thumb|upright=1.25|alt=Editorial illustration: Ali Fayyad|Original editorial portrait guided by an identified public photograph; distinct defendants’ outcomes are represented separately.]]

'''Ali Fayyad''', also spelled Ali Fayad, is a Lebanese-Ukrainian arms trader at the center of a 2014 undercover weapons case in Prague. U.S. accounts describe negotiations with people posing as representatives of FARC, followed by the arrests of Fayyad and associates Khaled El Merebi and Faouzi Jaber. Fayyad and Merebi were released in 2016, while Jaber was extradited to the United States and pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide [[United States material-support offenses|material support]] to FARC. The defendants’ different outcomes are essential to the history of the case.<ref name="r1" /><ref name="r2" />

== The undercover negotiations ==

The congressional account describes Fayyad as a Ukraine-based weapons trafficker and identifies Jaber and Merebi as business associates. DEA personnel and sources posed as intermediaries for FARC while negotiating weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles. The operation therefore concerned alleged willingness to supply a purported customer introduced through an undercover investigation. It should not be described as a completed delivery of those missiles to FARC unless a source establishes such a delivery.<ref name="r1" />

DOJ’s July 2017 announcement of Jaber’s plea describes meetings from late 2012 through early 2014, including in Ghana and Poland. It says Jaber introduced the supposed FARC representatives to a Ukraine-based weapons trafficker and a West Africa-based narcotics trafficker. The announced agreement involved weapons priced above $8 million and assistance with cocaine transport, storage and laundering. That price described a negotiated weapons package, not a recorded payment to [[Hezbollah]].<ref name="r2" />

== Arrest in Prague ==

The three men were arrested in Prague in 2014. The U.S. hearing account says Fayyad was indicted over attempted procurement of anti-aircraft missiles for FARC, while also noting narcotics charges against Jaber and Merebi. These differences in charging allegations matter: the same sting can expose several proposed services and produce charges that do not apply identically to every participant. The record should therefore identify the defendant and alleged activity rather than assign the complete list to all three.<ref name="r1" />

== Release and the Czech hostages ==

The hearing account says Fayyad and Merebi were released in early 2016 as five Czech nationals kidnapped in Lebanon the previous summer returned home. It describes the events as a swap. The 2020 Washington Institute summary of DEA official John Fernandez’s remarks likewise presents the kidnappings and release as pressure applied to secure the defendants’ freedom. These are attributed accounts of the episode and its interpretation. They do not establish a U.S. acquittal or a trial judgment exonerating Fayyad.<ref name="r1" /><ref name="r3" />

== Jaber’s separate outcome ==

Jaber was extradited to the United States. DOJ announced on July 25, 2017 that he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide [[United States material-support offenses|material support]] to FARC. The later congressional testimony reports a fifteen-year prison sentence. That punishment belongs to Jaber, not to Fayyad or Merebi.<ref name="r2" /><ref name="r1" />

== Place in Hezbollah-related investigations ==

The Fernandez remarks place the 2014 arrests within DEA investigations of [[Hezbollah]]’s global criminal support network. They also discuss the use of financial and narcotics authorities and the difficulties posed by political pressure on foreign partners. This investigative interpretation explains why the Prague case is discussed alongside [[Project Cassandra]] and other Hezbollah-finance cases. It does not change the named intended beneficiary in Jaber’s [[United States material-support offenses|material-support]] plea from FARC to Hezbollah.<ref name="r3" /><ref name="r2" />

== Procurement and wider context ==

The broader research on [[Hezbollah]] procurement describes a combination of organizational agents and commercial facilitators capable of obtaining and transporting weapons or sensitive goods. INSS’s financial-network analysis similarly emphasizes the role of intermediaries rather than a single institution. These frameworks help explain why an arms trader’s contacts can be relevant to several investigations. They do not demonstrate that every proposed deal in the Prague sting was ordered by Hezbollah’s leadership.<ref name="r4" /><ref name="r5" />

== References ==
<references>
<ref name="r1">[https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-115hhrg30897/html/CHRG-115hhrg30897.htm An Examination of Iran’s Global Terrorism Network]</ref>
<ref name="r2">[https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/ivorian-man-pleads-guilty-manhattan-federal-court-conspiring-provide-material-support DOJ, Ivorian Man Pleads Guilty In Manhattan Federal Court To Conspiring To Provide Material Support To The FARC, July 25, 2017]</ref>
<ref name="r3">[https://www.inss.org.il/private/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/01/the-deas-targeting-of-hezbollahs-global-criminal-support-network-en.pdf John Fernandez remarks, summarized by Samantha Stern, Washington Institute, January 2020 (INSS-hosted reprint)]</ref>
<ref name="r4">[https://ctc.westpoint.edu/hezbollahs-procurement-channels-leveraging-criminal-networks-partnering-iran/ Hezbollah’s Procurement Channels: Leveraging Criminal Networks and Partnering with Iran]</ref>
<ref name="r5">[https://www.inss.org.il/publication/hezbollah-finance/ Hezbollah’s Global Financial Network as a Target in the War Against the Organization]</ref>
</references>

''Legal and sanctions status as of 14 September 2026.''

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Editor: Replace lead image with credited photo (NP-111)

Editor: New article: Ali Fayyad