[6] According to a 2009 report by the United States Congress, Monzer al-Kassar supplied weapons and military equipment to armed groups engaged in violent conflicts in Nicaragua, Brazil, Cyprus, Bosnia, Croatia, Somalia, Iran and Iraq.
There he bought a mansion, that he named "Palacio de Mifadil" ("Palace of My Virtue", in a combination of Spanish and Arabic), and quickly developed a reputation as a wealthy, ostentatious businessman.
In 1985 he was the subject of a profile in the French magazine Paris Match, which wrote, "in a few years, this Syrian merchant became one of the most powerful businessmen in the world.
[9] In 1987, investigations into the Iran-Contra scandal found that al-Kassar had been paid 1.5 million GBP by someone in the U.S. government to sell arms to Nicaraguan Contras;[1] according to an article in The New Yorker, the money came from "a Swiss bank account controlled by Oliver North and his co-conspirators.
Also in 1992, the Spanish government arrested him for his alleged earlier involvement in the Achille Lauro hijacking, along with "falsification of documents" and "possession of illegal weapons and vehicles".
[6] In February 2007, the DEA had Samir arrange a meeting between al-Kassar and two Guatemalan informants posing as FARC insurgents who wanted to purchase weapons to use against American military forces.
The group met several more times, and at later meetings the informants were wearing hidden video cameras, which recorded al-Kassar agreeing to the terms of the deal.
In June 2007, the Cuerpo Nacional de Policía (Spanish National Police) at the Barajas Airport in Madrid arrested him after he got off the plane.
[12] On 20 November 2008, he was convicted in federal court of five charges, among them money laundering and conspiring to sell arms to suppliers for FARC.
[15][non-primary source needed] Monzer Al Kassar, pro se and incarcerated, appealed from the District Court’s denial of his 18 U.S.C.
The District Court denied his initial motion, finding that the risk of contracting COVID-19 at the prison where Al Kassar is detained, USP Marion, was minimal at the time.
The District Court denied the renewed motion, ruling that Al Kassar had established extraordinary and compelling reasons for compassionate release, but that 18 U.S.C.