Reports in German media as well as Reuters and the AFP say that a man was detained in Germany on suspicion of being linked to Hezbollah and acquiring parts for drones. “The engines were to be used in attacks on Israel. The Lebanese man is in custody,” Tagesspiegel reported. Hezbollah has used hundreds of drones in its attacks on Israel since October 8 when it began to attack Israel in the wake of the Hamas attack. Hezbollah drone attacks have become increasingly deadly in the last months.
According to the reports, the man was detained in the German state of Lower Saxony in central Germany. A man named “Fadel Z. is said to have procured components for military drones on behalf of Hezbollah,” Tagesspiegel added. The man is Lebanese and was living in Salzgitter, a city of around 100,000 people that has a large population of immigrants from the Middle East.
The man was detained based on suspicion that he is a member of a terrorist organization. “The suspected Hezbollah supporter was brought before the investigating judge of the Federal Court of Justice on Monday, who executed the arrest warrant, investigators in Karlsruhe said,” Tagesspiegel reported. The suspect joined Hezbollah in 2016, according to the reports. It was not clear how long he had resided in Germany.
Intending to attack Israel
Reuters reported similar details, noting that “German police arrested a Lebanese national, believed to be affiliated with the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group found purchasing drone components that were to be exported for use in attacks against Israel, prosecutors said on Monday. He is suspected of membership in a foreign terrorist organization.”
Iran has long sought to bolster its drone program by procuring dual-use components from Europe and the West. This includes engines. It makes sense that Hezbollah would replicate this model. By using middlemen or shell companies, engines and other components can be acquired and then sometimes shipped to third parties or third countries before making their way to places like Lebanon or Iran, or being smuggled to Yemen.
Iranian kamikaze Shahed 136 drones that were exported to Russia in 2022 were found to have components acquired from Europe. The drones were used to attack Ukrainians. “Iranian kamikaze drones used in the latest attacks on Ukrainian cities are filled with European components, according to a secret document sent by Kyiv to its western allies in which it appeals for long-range missiles to attack production sites in Russia, Iran and Syria,” the Guardian noted.
German-made engines are known for their quality. A Conflict Armament Research investigation previously found that “in 2006, German Limbach Flugmotoren L-550 UAV engines were illicitly exported to Iran. By 2009, [Iran’s] Mado CEO Yousaf Aboutalebi – who has since been sanctioned – was advertising that his then-unnamed company had successfully manufactured a domestic UAV engine.”
Hezbollah recently said it was using the Shahed 101 Iranian-style drone in attacks on Israel. Hezbollah has thousands of drones and it has increased their range and precision. It requires good components in order to produce quality drones that can carry out the kinds of attacks that Hezbollah seeks to implement. Illegally acquiring parts from places in Europe would make sense for Hezbollah and be in line with how Iran has made drones over the last two decades.
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