The US Department of Justice on Friday issued a statement regarding the indictment of Usama Darwich Hamade, 53, Samir Ahmed Berro, 64, and Issam Darwich Hamade, 55, for conspiring to illegally export goods and technology from the United States to Lebanon and to Hezbollah.
Hezbollah is a designated foreign terrorist organization according to the US government and the EU, which operates in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), the Export Administration Regulations, and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
Usama Hamade and Issam Hamade are currently in custody in South Africa, while Samir Ahmed Berro remains at large.
According to the Indictment, from 2009 through December 2013, Usama Hamade, Berro and Issam Hamade “willfully conspired to export and attempted to export from the United States to Lebanon, and specifically to Hezbollah, goods and technology without obtaining the required export licenses from the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of State, in violation of IEEPA, the Export Administration Regulations, the Arms Export Control Act, and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.”
The Indictment states that those goods included inertial measurement units (IMUs) suitable for use in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), a jet engine, piston engines, and recording binoculars.
The indictments follow an investigation conducted by the FBI, the US Department of Commerce Office of Export Enforcement, and Homeland Security Investigations.