Reported by DAVID DAOUD

(Excerpt shared below. To read full report, go to: https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2025/09/analysis-hezbollah-continues-exploiting-canadian-vehicular-theft-and-money-laundering-avenues.php)

Last week, the Canadian government issued its 2025 report assessing money laundering and terrorist financing risks in Canada. The report noted that Hezbollah was using both illicit and otherwise legal channels in the country to fund its activities in Lebanon—including exploiting the charitable and non-profit sectors and trade-based money laundering techniques.

One noted example was Hezbollah’s continued utilization of the used car trade to raise revenue. The report stated that the Port of Montreal in Quebec Province is a “known link where luxury vehicles are shipped to Lebanon, financially supporting Hezbollah.”

The current significance of vehicular theft for Hezbollah

As a result of its recent war with Israel, Hezbollah is suffering an acute financial crisis. Significant portions of the group’s once-massive arsenal and financial assets were destroyed by the Israelis. More importantly, however, the conflict decimated large swathes of the predominantly Shiite areas of Lebanon in which the group had ensconced itself. Unless the aftermath of this destruction is remedied soon, Hezbollah risks confronting a massive wave of Shiite anger that could deprive the group of critical social support at a time when Lebanon is considering pathways to the group’s disarmament.

A March 2025 assessment by the World Bankestimated that the reconstruction and recovery needs following the conflict stood at $11 billion. Some reports indicate that Iran immediately transferred $1 billion to Hezbollah via a regional country at the onset of the Lebanon-Israel ceasefire on November 27, 2024. However, Iranian funding has been hampered by Tehran’s own financial constraints, the curtailment of Hezbollah’s Syrian lifeline after Bashar al Assad’s downfall, and Israeli operations in Lebanon that have forced Beirut to limit Iranian efforts to finance the group.

This situation has left Hezbollah scrambling for sources of funding to cover the difference. For example, since the November 2024 ceasefire, Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem has repeatedly placed the onus of rebuilding on the Lebanese government—to shift both the financial burden of reconstruction onto Beirut, as well as the potential public anger if assistance is delayed.

However, the Lebanese government’s ability to finance reconstruction adequately also seems to be a non-starter, as Lebanon’s traditional financiers, like the United States, France, and the Gulf States, have been withholding funding from Beirut for years, absent significant political and economic reforms, including curtailing Hezbollah.

Hezbollah has leaned into its connection with criminal enterprises while being financially constrained in the past. This makes the group’s financial reliance on its network of diffuseoperatives in Western countries even more significant—where they can readily take advantage of “strong, open and stable econom[ies] and financial sector[s]” that, per the 2025 report, have made Canada an “an attractive source, destination, and transit point for proceeds of crime for both organized groups and third-party enablers.” Through these networks, only tacitly linked to Hezbollah, the group can exploit the strengths of Western economies and financial streams to raise funds in countries where it is otherwise proscribed.

Canada is considered a hub for automobile theft and international smuggling, and Hezbollah stands to benefit from tapping into that preexisting stream of criminal activity. Per INTERPOL’s 2024 numbers, “Canada ranks among the top 10 countries” for car theft. According to a 2017 study by the Insurance Bureau of Canada, a significant portion of the tens of thousands of vehicles stolen annually in Canada are smuggled abroad by organized crime groups, including to West Africa via Italy and Lebanon.

Meanwhile, in the intervening years, car theft and automobile smuggling to foreign destinations have been on the rise in Canada. The Groupement des asseurers automobiles, a group of automobile insurers in Quebec, noted a 55 percent increase in automobile thefts in the province between 2013 and 2023, in what the Insurance Bureau of Canada subsequently described as a “national crisis.”