In the Name of the State

France has been the preferred country for Hezbollah militants to seek asylum since 2010. It offers several advantages: the potential to blend in with a large Lebanese community and free movement on European territory. Paris was chosen as a bridgehead for laundering money from cocaine trafficking. The D.E.A., the American anti-drug agency, alerted the French police. Together they opened a new chapter in Operation Cassandra, named “Operation Cedar” after the tree that symbolizes Lebanon.