News Release
November 18, 2011
Contact: Public Affairs
Number: (202) 307-7977

Two Extradited, Charged with Weapons Support to Hizballah

One Defendant Allegedly Agreed to Acquire $9.5 Million Worth of Surface-to-Air Missiles and Other Weapons for Hizballah

NOV 18 – NEW YORK, N.Y. -- DEA Special Operations Division Special Agent in-Charge Derek Maltz and Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced the extraditions of Siavosh Henareh and Cetin Aksu from Romania, on charges of conspiring to provide narcotics and, in the case of Aksu, material support to Hizballah through an individual whom they believed to be an associate of Hizballah, but who was in fact, a United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), confidential source. Henareh, 57, a citizen of Iran, and Aksu, 49, a citizen of Turkey, arrived in the Southern District of New York today. They will be presented this afternoon in Magistrate Court and then arraigned before U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff.

“Drug traffickers and terrorists are joined at the hip in many parts of the world in mutually profitable relationships, and this is one of many examples of that dangerous connection,â€