The Rada clan companies often hide a very lucrative activity: laundering drug trafficking. According to expert reports, cocaine, of which Colombia represents 70% of the world's production, is today the second source of financing for the Lebanese Shiite party, behind the Tehran regime. The US Treasury lists about 2,000 individuals and companies linked to Hezbollah in its file of "foreign drug lords".

Samer, Amer Akil Rada's brother, was caught in 2013 in El Salvador with 500 kg of cocaine hidden in a shipment of pineapples that had left Panama. Having lived in Belize for a while, then managing a pizzeria in Barranquilla (Colombia), Samer then took refuge in Venezuela. In Caracas, he founded a cryptocurrency company, BCI Technologies, which was also criticized in September 2023 by Washington for its support for Hezbollah.

Cryptocurrency, widely used by Nicolas Maduro's regime, is another potential source of funding for the Lebanese paramilitary group, suspects the Israeli Bureau for Combating the Financing of Terrorism, which seized $1.7 million in this form in June 2023.

Undetectable to sniffer dogs

A detailed study of the Zanga company's records reveals a total of forty-three shipments of coal sent from Colombia between 2016 and 2021, destined for Lebanon, but also Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Israel – via the port of Ashdod – and the United States.

At the same time, another family entity, Tucan Trading, in Beirut, received at least twenty-five, fourteen of which were shipped by Zanga. The Rada clan also has a beachhead in Australia, where Marian Akil Rada resides. This young woman's profile on the social network LinkedIn presents her as an expert in customs and port logistics.