THE COMPOSITION OF THE GROUP SAYS IT ALL
It is not the number of visits that impacts; it is who came together. Alvin Holsey, representative of Southcom, the structure that coordinates military operations throughout the hemisphere. Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, architect of Washington's hardline against Iran and Hezbollah. Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense, whose presence in any allied country signals that the problem has moved beyond law enforcement. Daniel Salter, Director of the DEA, specializing in tracking transnational crime money. Kristi Noem, ''Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas'' on a surprise visit—the kind of visit that, in diplomatic language, communicates urgency. And to institutionalize everything on the ground, Washington appointed Leah Campos, a former CIA officer, as ambassador. Not a career diplomat. An intelligence operative. Rubio handles diplomacy. Hegseth handles force. Noem focuses on identifying financing networks and terrorist group operations in the region.
Salter tracks criminal money. Holsey coordinates regional operations. Campos manages permanent ground intelligence. Together, they cover the full spectrum of a State intervention. This is not a diplomatic delegation. It is a war room distributed over time.
THE U.S. HISTORICAL PATTERN
In the Dominican Republic, this pattern was followed to the letter. The appointment of Campos is not the first step. It is the last. It is the signal that the active phase has ended and the permanent control phase has begun.
AIRPORTS: THE UNDERESTIMATED KEY
President Abinader publicly confirmed that he authorized the U.S. government to operate in restricted areas of the country. The deployment included the San Isidro Air Base and Las Américas International Airport, featuring KC-135 tankers and C-17 aircraft for expanded air and maritime patrol and monitoring missions. Airports are where everything moves: people, cash, diplomatic pouches, cargo. Taking positions in an anti-financial operation means they are no longer searching, they know exactly what enters and exits. San Isidro offers direct access to the Mona Passage, a maritime corridor between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, and one of the most active trafficking routes in the Caribbean toward the U.S. East Coast.
Hegseth inadvertently confirmed this when he stated on Dominican soil:
“We came to support our main ally in the region in the fight against drugs and insecurity” and “We must confront narco-terrorists with strong and swift actions. It is the only language they understand.”
They weren't investigating. They already had the map. The fact that only the Dominican Republic has received such a concentration of power in almost 100 years also says something about the rest of Latin America. Either the networks in other countries are less developed, other governments did not cooperate, or the U.S. calculated that the DR was the most critical node to dismantle first to create a regional domino effect.
This suggests it was NOT ONLY intervened because Washington saw it as weak. It was selected because it was the most strategically useful POINT within that regional architecture.
HEZBOLLAH IN THE CARIBBEAN: WHAT THE RECORDS SHOW
This is not theory. The U.S. Department of the Treasury has spent decades sanctioning Hezbollah financing networks in Latin America. The Triple Frontier was the best-known case, but those networks dispersed under pressure and sought new nodes. The Caribbean offers what the Triple Frontier can no longer guarantee: less international scrutiny, active free trade zones, a banking system with sufficient opacity, and a constant commercial flow toward Europe and North America. The Dominican Republic meets all these requirements.
The DR functioned as an operational platform within networks associated with Hezbollah
The most concrete evidence that these routes passed through the country came with the case of the tanker *Boceánica*, sanctioned by the Treasury Department under OFAC designations for links to financing schemes associated with Hezbollah, which according to reports from El Testigo, set sail from Azua, Dominican Republic, bound for Venezuela in the 2024-2025 period. (Source: https://eltestigo.com/tanquero-vinculado-a-hezbollah-sancionado-por-ee-uu-arriba-a-venezuela-tras-zarpar-desde-rd | OFAC Designation: https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0322)
Geopolitical analysts weighed in: International relations expert Iván Gatón warned in September 2024 that Washington was “increasingly concerned about the possible presence of Hezbollah in Haiti,” pointing to the growth of Islam in that country through the *zakat* system—the same mechanism Hezbollah uses to build loyalty networks in vulnerable territories. Haiti shares the island with the Dominican Republic. (Source: Teleradio América, September 2024: https://teleradioamerica.com/2024/09/gaton-existe-preocupacion-por-la-presencia-de-hezbollah-en-haiti/)
Retired General Damián Arias Matos warned in an exclusive interview with Altanto TV in February 2026 that terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and ISIS could have entered U.S. territory using the Dominican Republic as a point of entry. This statement from a high-ranking Dominican military officer reinforces what intelligence records already suggested: that the island was not just a financial transit zone, but a gateway to the heart of the United States. (Source: Altanto TV, February 18, 2026: https://youtu.be/nXu_LWpm2v0?si=2eGRKdD-us2h0Erc)
The strange case of the 9.5 tons, the president's trip to the Middle East, and Hezbollah's announcement of economic difficulties
The seizure of 9.5 tons of drugs coming from Catatumbo, Colombia—an area with documented presence of Hezbollah networks with indirect links to the ELN—whose destination route was Belgium, a corridor that the intelligence community associates with operational networks in the Dominican Republic-Venezuela-Colombia triangle.
This is crucial: just when Hezbollah was under its greatest financial pressure following the 2023 war with Israel, its networks in the Western Hemisphere became more critical, not less. The DR was in that circuit.
This has two simultaneous and non-contradictory interpretations.
First: the Lebanese diaspora in the DR is integrated into the highest levels of Dominican society and economy, making it especially valuable as a facilitation network.
Second: Abinader himself, by cooperating fully with the U.S., drew a clear line separating Lebanese cultural identity from Hezbollah financing networks, a distinction not all Lebanese in the region have been willing to make.
THE DR'S STRUCTURAL FINANCIAL PROBLEM
The most recent assessment indicates that the Dominican Republic was partially or non-compliant in the 6 Fundamental FATF Recommendations regarding the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing. Source: https://www.knowyourcountry.com/country-reports/dominican-republic/
In plain language: the rules existed, but the ability to enforce them was weak at exactly the most critical points. This is no accident—it is exactly the type of environment that Hezbollah networks seek for operations.
THE LEBANESE DIASPORA AND THE ABINADER FACTOR
This is the most sensitive element of the analysis, requiring the greatest precision. President Luis Abinader belongs to a family of Lebanese origin deeply integrated into Dominican political and economic life. During an official visit to Beirut, he declared before then-president Michel Aoun and Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil: “The cedar runs through my veins.” The video of the speech is public: Source: (https://youtu.be/OwuSoxrQWEc?si=qE1DmeIB1MrzY_Fy)
Gebran Bassil, a figure of the Free Patriotic Movement and a parliamentary ally of Hezbollah within the Lebanese political system, was sanctioned by the Treasury Department in November 2020 under the Global Magnitsky Act for corruption and for strengthening structures that benefit Hezbollah allies. Bassil himself admitted that Washington demanded he break his ties with Hezbollah before applying the sanctions, and he refused. Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-54823667
What makes this link especially relevant to the analysis is that, as early as November 2016, when Abinader was an opposition leader before becoming president, he organized a private lunch for Bassil in Santo Domingo with businessmen of Lebanese origin, as reported by Diario Libre on November 24 of that year. (Source: https://www.diariolibre.com/actualidad/politica/abinader-ofrecera-almuerzo-a-ministro-de-exteriores-del-libano-EF5564035)
The fact that the current president has cultural and personal ties with sectors of the Lebanese political spectrum is not evidence of anything illegal. But it explains why the Lebanese diaspora in the country, integrated at the highest levels of society, politics, and business, represented a conducive environment for financial facilitation networks to operate with relative ease for years. The reading that emerges is that Abinader knew of the problem and chose to solve it by cooperating fully with Washington, marking a clear line between Lebanese cultural identity and Hezbollah financing. This decision carries a considerable internal political cost.
THE PRECEDENT NO ONE REMEMBERS: PUERTO PLATA AND 9/11
The connection between the Dominican Republic and Middle Eastern extremist networks did not begin in 2024. It has a precedent that was publicly documented in 2018 by Listín Diario and went mostly unnoticed. The then-Dominican consul in Hamburg, Angelita Peña, revealed that the CIA contacted her days after the September 11, 2001, attacks because Mohamed Atta—the leader of the hijackers—had visited Puerto Plata three weeks before the attacks, in a meeting that reportedly served to coordinate the final details of the operation. The CIA determined that several of the airline tickets used by the terrorists to travel to the Dominican Republic were sent to them from the country.
“The CIA was investigating whether part of the plan was actually assembled in the Dominican Republic, specifically in Puerto Plata, where it was identified they had been,” Peña told Listín Diario.
Of the 19 hijackers, one was of Lebanese nationality: Ziad Jarrah, pilot of Flight 93. (Source: https://listindiario.com/la-republica/2018/09/14/533114/puerto-plata-fue-un-punto-de-reunion-de-terroristas-del-9-11.html)
This precedent does not establish a direct line between the events of 9/11 and Hezbollah—Al Qaeda and Hezbollah are distinct organizations with documented rivalries. But it does establish something more important for OSINT analysis: that the Dominican Republic has historically functioned as a transit and meeting point for Middle Eastern extremist networks long before the Trump administration made it a priority.
The case of the Dominican president's stepmother, accused of selling Dominican passports to Arab and Pakistani citizens, is not just a corruption scandal. It is the reappearance of a vulnerability the Dominican Republic has exhibited once before, with consequences that changed history.
The fact that Pakistani citizens were among the buyers takes on an additional dimension when considering that, in the same period, U.S. authorities dismantled a plot by Pakistani citizens to assassinate President Donald Trump—a plan with ramifications in multiple countries. Source: https://www.univision.com/noticias/estados-unidos/asi-fue-la-caida-de-asif-merchant-el-agente-irani-que-buscaba-asesinar-a-trump
But the story doesn't end with the passport. According to a report by journalist Alicia Ortega, several of those Pakistanis who obtained Dominican documentation arrived in the country and established used car businesses. What at first glance seems like an ordinary commercial activity coincides precisely with one of the most documented methods of financing and money laundering by Hezbollah globally: the use of used car businesses combined with the informal money transfer system known as Hawala. Source: https://www.univision.com/noticias/estados-unidos/asi-fue-la-caida-de-asif-merchant-el-agente-irani-que-buscaba-asesinar-a-trump
The method works like this: the car business generates invoices, inventory movements, and cash flows that justify money transfers between countries without using the formal banking system.
The Hawala complements this scheme by allowing value to be moved between network nodes—Beirut, Caracas, Lagos, Santo Domingo—without the money physically crossing any border or leaving a trace in any bank. The U.S. Treasury Department has documented this scheme in multiple cases of Hezbollah networks in West Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
ISKANDAR SAFA AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Franco-Lebanese businessman Iskandar Safa appears in multiple journalistic investigations documenting his international activity and his links to the Dominican Republic. According to the Panama Papers, Safa was advised to acquire assets through offshore companies. European media linked him at different times to negotiations between France and Hezbollah for the release of hostages, although the related judicial processes were closed for lack of evidence and Safa was exonerated.
Relevant to this analysis is that Safa has a residence in the Dominican Republic, and his Dominican wife was appointed ambassador to the United Arab Emirates. *Acento* documented visits by Dominican politicians to his residence in the east of the country, highlighting that these are social and personal ties. (Sources: https://www.univision.com/noticias/papeles-de-panama/al-empresario-iskandar-safa-lo-asesoraron-para-camuflar-su-identidad-y-comprar-el-yate-mas-costoso | https://acento.com.do/amp/actualidad/iskandar-safa-influyente-rd-esposo-una-embajadora-dominicana-perseguido-ee-uu-8663489.html)
WHAT MILITARY RECORDS ALREADY INDICATED
The analysis The Nexus of Extremism and Trafficking (JSOU, 2013), prepared by retired Brigadier General Russell D. Howard, examined a 2009 case in Curaçao where 17 people were arrested for a drug trafficking network with alleged financial connections to Hezbollah; part of whose profits were reportedly laundered through assets acquired in Caribbean countries, including the Dominican Republic. (Source: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GOVPUB-D-PURL-gpo81104/pdf/GOVPUB-D-PURL-gpo81104.pdf)
These precedents confirm that the Dominican Republic did not suddenly appear on intelligence radars in 2024. It had been pointed out for years in official documents as a zone of interest within networks connecting the Caribbean with Hezbollah financing.
THE HEMISPHERIC CONTEXT: THE DR AS AN ANTI-VENEZUELA PLATFORM
The visits to Santo Domingo cannot be read in isolation. Starting in August 2025, the U.S. accumulated the largest regional military presence in the Caribbean Sea since the Cuban Missile Crisis. In November of that year, the Trump administration formalized the “Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine,” authorizing deployments and the use of lethal force against organizations designated as terrorists in the hemisphere.
Journalistic investigations documented that the Dassault Falcon 900EX aircraft used by Maduro remained in the Dominican Republic for months before being confiscated by U.S. authorities, in the context of the Alex Saab case—Maduro's financial operator pointed out by the U.S. for his links with Iranian-Venezuelan networks and Hezbollah.
The Dassault Falcon 900EX was the same aircraft used to pick up Saab when he was released in 2020 by Biden, in negotiations with Nicolas Maduro.
The trajectory of Alex Saab, of Lebanese origin, is a complex framework of power and opacity. Identified as Maduro's main frontman, he acted as a key link in financing networks linked to Hezbollah.
Source: https://www.eltiempo.com/justicia/investigacion/ee-uu-e-israel-rastrean-dinero-del-senalado-testaferro-de-nicolas-maduro-281984
His reach extended to the Dominican Republic, where he managed to hide two planes and a US$700 million mansion. Additionally, he used the island as a strategic enclave to move oil tankers, evading international sanctions. These operations reveal an indirect link of Dominican territory in the financial architecture of Chavismo. (Source: https://www.diariolibre.com/usa/actualidad/2024/09/02/ruta-del-avion-de-maduro-desde-su-compra-ilegal-hasta-llegada-a-rd/2837391) https://es-us.noticias.yahoo.com/eu-confisca-bienes-700-millones-163443511.html?guccounter=1
The Dominican Republic was not just an intervention target; it was the most valuable platform available. Its position places its eastern coast directly on the routes connecting Venezuela and Colombia with Puerto Rico and the U.S. East Coast.
CONCLUSION: THE PATTERN THAT DOES NOT LIE
In almost one hundred years of contemporary history, no other Latin American country has received such a concentration of visits from the highest ranks of the U.S. security apparatus in such a short period.
This analysis by Kapulett does not state that the Dominican Republic is an operational center for Hezbollah, but that the DR functioned as an operational platform within networks associated with Hezbollah. The premise is that there is a set of documented events—high-command visits, airport takeovers, the appointment of a former CIA agent as ambassador, a tanker sanctioned for Hezbollah links sailing from Dominican ports, precedents ranging from 9/11 to the Panama Papers—that configures a pattern deserving scrutiny. None of these facts alone constitutes legal proof. But no serious investigation can ignore them as a whole.
The intervention itself is the most eloquent evidence of infiltration. Rubio, Hegseth, Noem, the DEA, and the Army do not mobilize to combat something marginal.
The Dominican Republic was not only affected by the extradition for narco-terrorism of Fabio Jorge Puras—Luis Abinader's advisor on free trade zones, of Lebanese origin and a native of Santiago de los Caballeros—an event that critics say weakened the presidential figure, but the country was also subject to intervention due to its strategic relevance. Source: https://listindiario.com/la-republica/20260202/jorge-fabio-puras-viaja-eeuu-responder-supuestamente-haber-traficado-drogas-rd_892447/amp.html
And that distinction changes everything.
This analysis is based exclusively on verifiable public sources, documented journalistic reports, and official records. It does not constitute a legal charge against any person or institution. It is an analytical review of events that, taken together, configure a pattern of justified investigative attention. — Kapulett | OSINT Analysis
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