The US caught two members of Iran's Lebanese proxy running an amusement park in Nigeria

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control added two individuals to its specially designated nationals list on February 26: Fouzi Reda Darwish Fawaz and Mustapha Reda Darwish Fawaz, two Lebanese men living and working in west Africa.

And according to the Treasury designation, the two men are both members of a Hezbollah terrorist cell, tying them to an Iran-backed extremist organization active in every continent on earth, as well as on the battlefield in Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon.

Three of the men's businesses were added to the sanctions list, meaning that the US believes that those businesses in some way furthered Hezbollah's activities (although as sanctions law expert Sam Cutler noted on Twitter, businesses "owned 50% or more by SDNs are automatically blocked and may be subject to designation.") A supermarket and a second, innocuously named enterprise are now on the SDN list, along with a more surprising inclusion: the Wonderland Amusement Park and Resort in Abuja, Nigeria's capital.

Consequently, it's now much harder for individuals and companies to do business with one of the populous west African nation's top amusement destinations.

A theme park is pretty risky, as criminal fronts go. It's probably one of the most conspicuous investments one can make, a business that can't survive unless thousands of complete strangers pass through it each day. And even if it isn't specifically being used in the furtherance of terrorism, an amusement park is a major piece of real estate that's sure to draw extra scrutiny to its ownership.

At the same time, the Fawazes did not exactly keep a low profile. A Haaretz article from 2013 reported that the Fawazes had used the amusement park to store weapons. The supermarket alone was worth an estimated $35 million, Haaretz noted, while the two commanded a "multimillion-dollar retail enterprise" that benefitted Hezbollah.

Mustapha Fawaz even seemed to have fruitful diplomatic contacts: according to the Treasury citation, he "provided Hizballah with a report of his visit to the US Embassy in Nigeria." Treasury also alleged that he exploited his supermarket's international clientele, using special cameras to "monitor the movements of expatriates, especially Israelis."

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-us-caught-two-members-of-irans-lebanese-proxy-running-an-amusement-park-in-nigeria-2015-2#ixzz3Ssrq9Dcp