Terror groups taking cut as drug money is laundered Terrorist groups are profiting as part of a money-laundering operation involving hundreds of millions of dollars Australians are spending on illegal drugs. The revelations come as Australia's biggest money-laundering investigation, Project Eligo, has identified hundreds of unwitting Australian residents being duped into helping to launder the drug money overseas - including funds generated by outlaw motorcycle gangs and people-smuggling operations. It is believed at least one of the "exchange houses" used in the Australian laundering operation delivers a cut from every dollar it launders to Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, whose military wing has been proscribed in Australia as a terrorist group. The investigation has uncovered 40 separate money-laundering operations across Australia, moving hundreds of millions of dollars in drug money offshore, and identified almost 130 serious organised crime figures previously unknown to law-enforcement agencies. One of the ways drug money can be laundered offshore involves crime figures targeting Australian residents - mostly foreign nationals and students - who are expecting a foreign bank, remittance service or business overseas to send money into their local account. Instead of this occurring , the crime figures deposit Australian drug money into the bank accounts of the unsuspecting victims and request money from the bank or business overseas. "We are trying to educate these innocent people," said the Australian Crime Commission's acting operations manager, Col Blanch. If we have new arrivals in the country, we want to educate them. If they are moving their money this way, they risk being exploited by serious organised criminals. The operation has seized $26 million in dirty cash, restrained $30 million worth of houses and other assets funded by drug money and intercepted drug shipments totalling more than $530 million. It is understood dozens of "exchange houses" or money-laundering centres in the Middle East and Asia are used to wash and distribute the money to overseas crime bosses. The US government last year identified two Lebanese exchange houses, Kassem Rmeiti and Halawi Exchange, as drug money-launderers financing Hezbollah. The revelations about the taskforce come as the federal government plans to revamp the nation's asset confiscation and unexplained wealth regime. Most state governments and police forces are failing to back a push from federal agencies to fully use the seizure powers. One senior police source said Australia was good at tracking and freezing drug money heading overseas, but it struggled to do the same with the proceeds of crime locally. Mr Blanch said the taskforce investigation had tracked down "people-smuggling money ... and bikie money." Most of the funds moved involve the proceeds of drug-trafficking. Mr Blanch said that due to the scale of the massive criminal operation, his agency had to call for the help of state and federal police and the US Drug Enforcement Administration. "It was just never-ending," Mr Blanch said. We were regularly finding bags of $500,000 and $400,000.