Feds charge Hezbollah leader in 1994 Buenos Aires bombing that killed 85

MANHATTAN (CN) — The Department of Justice on Wednesday announced charges against a leader of the Hezbollah terror group who prosecutors say helped orchestrate the bombing of an Jewish community center in Argentina in 1994.

According to an indictment unsealed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, Samuel Salman El Reda, 58, was instrumental in coordinating a car bombing nearly three decades ago in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and wounded hundreds more.

Prosecutors say El Reda first started working with Hezbollah in 1993 — a year before the attack he’s now being charged for. But in the years after that bombing, he continued to aid the group’s global terrorism efforts in South America, Asia and Lebanon, according to the indictment.

“As alleged, El Reda was an on-the-ground coordinator of the fatal attack against South America’s largest Jewish center nearly 30 years ago,” NYPD Commissioner Edward A. Caban said in a press release Wednesday announcing the charges. “In the decades after that attack, he allegedly continued to direct and support terrorism activities in the Western Hemisphere on behalf of Hizballah and has been involved in plots all across the world. We want this alleged killer brought to justice.”

According to the criminal complaint, El Reda helped “recruit, train and manage” Hezbollah members around the world from around 2007 to 2015. Prosecutors claimed he deployed “operatives to Thailand, Panama and Peru, among other places, to conduct pre-operational surveillance in support of attack planning and to assist in stockpiling explosive precursor chemicals such as ammonium nitrate.”

In a statement accompanying the charges, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “The career prosecutors of this office have not forgotten the pain and suffering that El Reda has allegedly caused, and we thank the dedication of our law enforcement partners for pursuing this important case. We will not rest until those who create chaos and destruction are brought to justice.”

El Reda has long been in the sights of the U.S. government. In 2019, the State Department sanctioned him and offered a $7 million reward for information regarding his whereabouts. Wednesday’s press release indicated that the Lebanon-based El Reda remains at large.

Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen said that Wednesday’s indictment is a reminder that the Justice Department’s “memory is long.”

“This indictment serves as a message to those who engage in acts of terror: that the Justice Department’s memory is long, and we will not relent in our efforts to bring them to justice,” Olsen said in a statement.

El Reda could face decades in prison if convicted. The charges against him include providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, conspiring to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization aiding and abetting the receipt of military-type training from a designated foreign terrorist organization and conspiring to receive military-type training from a designated foreign terrorist organization.

His indictment comes as a joint effort between the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the FBI’s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Department of Justice. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jacob Gutwillig and Jason Richman are handling El Reda’s prosecution, according to Wednesday’s press release.

Hezbollah has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States since 1997. The Islamist militant group is based in Lebanon, and has been in a longstanding geopolitical battle with Israel for decades. In 2010, the State Department called Hezbollah the most “technically capable terrorist group in the world” and a “continued security threat” to the U.S.

Argentina has also accused the group of orchestrating a 1992 suicide bombing at the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, an attack that killed 29 people and wounded more than 200. Iran and Hezbollah have denied responsibility for both Buenos Aires bombings.

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