Brazilian police in Curitiba arrested Hamzi Ahmad Barakat, a Lebanese citizen with ties to Hezbollah, on charges of setting up front companies to defraud Lebanese immigrants. In 2006 the US designated Barakat a terrorist for using a store in Paraguay to help fund Hezbollah, which the US considers a terrorist group. Barakat’s brother Assad Ahmad Barakat, who was deported to Paraguay in 2002, was added to the US’s list of terrorists in 2004.
