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Welcome to Spycast, the official podcast of the International Spy Museum.

I'm your host, Sasha Ingberg, and we're in the midst of a month

of episodes on Latin America, crossing borders and decades to explore clandestine activities

that have shaped our world. A 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Argentina opened the world's eyes to Hezbollah's presence in Latin America.

But the Iranian proxy, a U.S. designated terrorist group, has operated in the region since the 1980s.

It started in the tri-border area of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, earning the

nickname, the United Nations of Crime. And the Drug Enforcement Administration has said Hesbola's

revenues in Central and South America fund their terrorist plots overseas. West Tabor, a former DEA agent, knows all about it.

He was part of a landmark case that exposed their ties to drug cartels and financial institutions.

Now he takes us into the present, describing how the U.S.'s removal of Nicholas Maduro in Venezuela

impacts Hezbollah's presence in the Western Hemisphere today.

Hey, Wes, thank you so much for flying in from Florida.

Yeah, it's quite the trip.

So let's start by talking about how Hezbollah came to build roots in Latin America.

Sure. So when you look at what Hezbollah has done over the last, you know, 50 years, it's gone crazy.

You start Civil War in 1975. Then you had disparate groups that kind of moved out from the Civil War until 1990, right?

So you have that 15-year range before the truce is called within Lebanon.

But then you have these groups that have gone out, these Lebanese group of people,

and they find in the tri-border areas in Paraguay, Brazil, so forth.

And they start spreading out.

But the important thing to understand is why are they doing this?

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