Security personnel in Lebanon have taken a man into custody after he reportedly sent nearly $500,000 to the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group operating in neighboring Syria, according to statements made to AFP on Tuesday by an anonymous judicial official.
Authorities “arrested a man who had stolen $400,000 from his father’s safe, and investigations showed that he had transferred the money to Syria" to finance ISIS operations, the official explained.
Subsequent inquiries revealed that the detainee was “part of a cell active between Lebanon and Syria" which operated alongside three incarcerated members currently held in a prison in Tripoli, Lebanon, who “handled coordination with ISIS in Syria," the official noted to AFP.
Following the exposure of the plot, two additional suspects associated with the group are believed to have fled across the loosely guarded frontier into Syrian territory.
The official emphasized that the terror ring > “was responsible for funding ISIS with the aim of carrying out terror acts, whether inside Syrian territory or in Lebanon."
ISIS overran large swathes of Syria and neighboring Iraq in 2014, proclaiming a "caliphate" in land it controlled.
Several military offensives, including those backed by the US-led international coalition, have since seen ISIS lose most areas it once controlled, including the loss of their de facto capital in Raqqa, Syria.
However, ISIS sleeper cells remain in the area and continue to carry out deadly attacks in Syria and Iraq.
Earlier this month, ISIS was blamed for the detonation of explosive devices near the hotel in which French President Emmanuel Macron was staying during an official visit to Damascus.