Report: Discovery of an international criminal network linking drug trafficking and Syrian arms trade.

Documents from a U.S. federal court in Virginia have revealed details of a sophisticated criminal network spanning four continents, involving drug cartels, armed groups, and rogue regimes.

The documents, detailed in The New York Times, disclosed that the network planned to smuggle hundreds of kilograms of cocaine into the Syrian port of Tartus inside a shipping container declared as loaded with fruits, in exchange for a shipment of weapons from the former Syrian regime's arsenal destined to arm one of the most dangerous criminal organizations in Latin America, alongside money laundering operations.

One of the main suspects in the case, Antoine Keserwany (Lebanese national), was extradited from Kenya and presented to court last Friday, facing charges related to narco-terrorism, conspiring to support a foreign terrorist organization, the National Liberation Army (E.L.N) of Colombia.

The documents revealed that Keserwany, believed to be a Lebanese drug dealer, had close ties to influential figures in the former Syrian regime, internationally accused of turning Syria into a "narcostate." The court also exposed his involvement in an international money laundering network based in Lebanon, collaborating with the Mexican Sinaloa cartel, and the armed Colombian group.

The case highlights the global threat posed by the proliferation of weapons from the former Syrian regime following the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad last December, feared to fall into the hands of transnational groups, posing a danger to global security and stability.