Hezbollah is facing hard times. Defending the Assad regime in Syria is a drain on personnel, funds, and military resources; it has produced losses on par with what the group suffered over 18 years of fighting Israel. Meanwhile, longtime sanctions and the decline in oil prices have led Iran to cut back support. The effects can be seen in Lebanon, where Hezbollah has cut salaries of some personnel, deferred payment to suppliers, and slashed monthly stipends to allied parties.

Yet when Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah gave lengthy televised addresses last month and in July, he focused on other issues: denying that Hezbollah engages in commercial activities and declaring “unjust” charges that Hezbollah has ties to drug trafficking and money laundering. The vehement denials are a response to intensifying efforts by the U.S. and key allies to target Hezbollah’s drug trafficking, money laundering, and arms procurement.

The Treasury Department is moving more frequently to designate terrorists and targeting key individuals and companies facilitating Hezbollah’s international misdeeds, with a focus on those with ties to the Islamic Jihad Organization, Hezbollah’s terrorist arm. The Justice Department has been working with European governments to arrest suspects in “far-ranging money-laundering probes touching Europe, South America, North America and Africa,” the Wall Street Journal reported last month. President Barack Obama signed legislation in December that aims to “thwart” the group’s “network at every turn” by imposing sanctions on financial institutions that deal with Hezbollah or its al Manar television station.

The Treasury designations — which freeze assets and impose sanctions — kicked into high gear in June when the U.S. targeted a high-level operative, Adham Tabaja and his company, al-Inmaa Group. Already, Treasury had targeted Hezbollah’s military procurement front organizations and some of the businesses that run them, such as Stars Group Holdings in Lebanon and foreign subsidiaries that supplied components for the unmanned aerial vehicles Hezbollah deploys over Syria and Israel. Treasury also targeted associates of Mr. Tabaja — one, Husayn Ali Faour, is a member of Hezbollah’s Islamic Jihad whose company supplied vehicles — and other Hezbollah procurement agents and financiers.

Read the article in full at the Washington Institute.