Lebanese man pleads guilty to exporting US drone parts to Hezbollah

A Lebanese man, Osama Hamada, on Monday pleaded guilty before a federal court in the state of Minnesota of conspiring to illegally export drones spare parts and technology from the United States to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, US Attorney Erica MacDonald said.

Last March, Osama’s brother, Issam pleaded guilty before a federal court in Minnesota to exporting drone spare parts to Lebanon.

Prosecutors said the two brothers had acquired advanced technology for drones from 2009 to 2013, and illegally exported them to Hezbollah, which the United States considers a terrorist organization, Associated Press reported.

The two brothers had been arrested in February 2018 in South Africa and were extradited to the United States in 2019.

According to the list of charges, the parts included measurement units, which can be used to track an aircraft’s position and digital compasses, which can be paired with the measurement units for drone guidance systems. The parts also included a jet engine and 20 piston engines.

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