The US Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on 10 individuals accused of being part of a network that transfers large amounts of cash to Hizballah.

Axar.az reports that, according to the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the network uses couriers traveling on commercial flights between Lebanon, Turkiye, the UAE and Iran to move up to hundreds of millions of dollars, allowing Hizballah to obtain foreign currency outside the formal financial system and evade sanctions.

The Treasury said Turkish businessman Yunus Alper Yilmaz manages the courier network and has used exchange houses in Turkiye as fronts for financial activities linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF).

“Today’s action is being taken pursuant to the United States’ counterterrorism authority, Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, as amended,” the Treasury said.

The department said Yilmaz and two associates were sanctioned for providing support to the IRGC-QF, while seven other couriers were sanctioned for providing support to Hizballah.

The Treasury also re-designated Hizballah under E.O. 13224, citing the group’s links to and direction by the IRGC-QF.

As a result of the sanctions, the designated individuals’ property and interests in property under US jurisdiction are blocked, and US persons are generally prohibited from conducting transactions with them.