Cheaitelly - El Khansa network
The Cheaitelly - El Khansa network was designated by U.S. Treasury in December 2011 as an international drug-proceeds money-laundering operation. Treasury named Ali Mohamad Saleh among its Colombia-based members and described Junior International S.A. as affiliated with Ayman Joumaa. In June 2012, Treasury separately designated Saleh for Hezbollah support. These records connect named actors and a business across networks; they do not declare every Cheaitelly - El Khansa participant a Hezbollah member or trace all the network’s proceeds to Hezbollah.[1][2]
Designation and network connections
OFAC designated Jorge Fadlallah Cheaitelly, Mohamad Zouheir El Khansa and associated people and businesses under the Kingpin Act. The release described a Panama-based network laundering drug-trafficking proceeds for Mexican and Colombian criminal groups, with entities in Panama, Colombia, Lebanon and Hong Kong. A designation is an administrative sanctions action rather than a conviction of all named people.[1]
Scope of the 2011 action
The 29 December 2011 action designated Cheaitelly and El Khansa, both described as Lebanese-Colombian nationals, alongside nine other people and 28 entities. Treasury identified Cheaitelly as the leader of the Panama-based organization and said the action followed coordination with DEA, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the New York City Police Department. The stated consequences were restrictions on U.S. persons’ transactions and the freezing of covered assets. The announcement did not report a collective criminal verdict against the eleven individuals.[1]
Regional actors
The release named Jaime Edery Crivosei as a Cali-based money launderer, Benny Issa Fawaz as a Barranquilla-based drug trafficker and Ali Mohamad Saleh as a Maicao-based money launderer. It also identified Cheaitelly’s siblings Jaime Fadlallah Cheaytelli, Guiseppe Ali Cheaitelli Saheli and Fatima Fadlallath Cheaitilly as financial associates, together with Lebanon-based Fawaz Mohamad Rahall and Ahmed El Khansa. These are Treasury’s attributed roles within the 2011 action, rather than findings that every named person performed the same function.[1]
Designation and network connections
Treasury named Eurocambio, Eurex and General Commerce Overseas as Panama exchange businesses in the network, and Junior International, Global Technology Import & Export and Fedco Import & Export as import-export firms in the Colón Free Zone. It said Cheaitelly replaced Joumaa as a director of Junior International and continued operating the company with Joumaa’s brothers. Those company-level links are more precise than shared Panama geography, but the action does not allocate any specific company transfer to Saleh’s later Hezbollah fundraising role.[1]
Commercial entities
The Colombian businesses named in the action included electronics retailers Bodega Electro Giorgio and Almacen Electro Sony Star, merchandise businesses Family Fedco and Comercial Globanty, and luggage shops Almacen Batul and Comercial Estilo y Moda. Treasury also named Agropecuaria La Perla Ltda and KPD S.A. as controlled by Edery Crivosei, and Hong Kong-based Polyton (Asia) Limited as acting for Guiseppe Ali Cheaitelly Saheli. This range of businesses explains the designation’s commercial reach without establishing that every sale or shipment was illicit.[1]
Designation and network connections
First, Treasury named Ali Mohamad Saleh as a Maicao-based money launderer in the 2011 action; the 2012 action described his Hezbollah fundraising and courier transfers in a separate terrorism designation. Second, Treasury said Junior International S.A. was affiliated with Joumaa and that Cheaitelly replaced him as director while operating it with Joumaa’s brothers. The source does not describe a specific Hezbollah transfer by Junior International.[1][2]
Junior International
Treasury’s account of Junior International described a specific management transition: Cheaitelly replaced Ayman Joumaa as a director and continued running the company with Joumaa’s brothers. It did not identify the timing or value of a particular drug-money transfer through the firm, or a transfer onward to Hezbollah. The documented connection is therefore between named managers and an import-export company, rather than a complete traced payment from a cartel to the organization.[1]
Saleh’s separate designation
The 27 June 2012 release described Ali Mohamad Saleh’s fundraising from business owners and residents and the movement of checks and U.S. currency by courier from Maicao through Venezuela to Lebanon. His brother Kassem Mohamad Saleh was separately designated under the Kingpin Act for supporting Abbas Hussein Harb. The brother’s designation and the companies associated with Harb and Kassem should not be collapsed into Ali’s terrorism designation or attributed to every company listed in December 2011.[2]
Trade and financial mechanisms
FATF’s March 2010 free-trade-zone study described an anonymous case using Colón and Miami businesses to move value associated with drug proceeds through commerce. It offers a useful comparison for the interaction of traders, exchange services and cross-border settlement. The report predates the Cheaitelly - El Khansa designation and does not identify its anonymous example as this network. Similar commercial geography cannot supply that missing identification.[3]
Research interpretation
Noam Binstok, Orna Mizrahi and Esteban Klor’s May 2026 INSS analysis distinguishes trade-based conversion of proceeds from informal cross-border settlement. That framework helps explain why investigators examine exchange houses and import-export firms together. Here, the direct records identify a drug-money network, corporate overlap with Joumaa and Saleh’s separate Hezbollah-support role. The broader model does not establish a common command structure or quantify the share of this network’s cartel proceeds delivered to Hezbollah.[4]
Designation and network connections
The Cheaitelly/El Khansa organization, Joumaa organization and Saleh’s Hezbollah support role overlap through identified people or a firm. The sources do not establish a unified command structure, identical money flows or a quantified portion of cartel proceeds delivered to Hezbollah. Each bridge requires its own source and legal status.[1][2]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Treasury, Panama-based money laundering operation linked to Mexican and Colombian drug cartels,29December2011
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Treasury Targets Major Money Laundering Network Linked to Drug Trafficker Ayman Joumaa and a Key Hizballah Supporter in South America | U.S. Department of the Treasury
- ↑ significantly vulnerable to money laundering
- ↑ Hezbollah’s Global Financial Network as a Target in the War Against the Organization
Legal and sanctions status as of 11 September 2026.