NEW YORK: U.S. authorities Monday announced the seizure of $150 million allegedly linked to a scheme by Hezbollah to launder proceeds from drug trafficking and other crimes.

The money came from a U.S. bank account used by the Beirut-based Lebanese Canadian Bank to conduct U.S. currency transactions, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration chief Michele Leonhart said.

Washington considers Hezbollah a terrorist organization.

“As we alleged last year, the Lebanese Canadian Bank played a key role in facilitating money laundering for Hezbollah-controlled organizations across the globe,” Leonhart said in a statement.

A December 2011 money laundering and forfeiture complaint filed in a U.S. federal court in New York targeted the LCB and two other Lebanese financial institutions with alleged ties to Hezbollah. U.S. prosecutors then alleged that the LCB, the Hassan Ayash Exchange Company and Ellissa Holding wired funds from Lebanon to the United States to buy used cars, which were then sent to West Africa.

“Cash from the sale of the cars, along with proceeds of narcotics trafficking, were then funneled to Lebanon through Hezbollah-controlled money laundering channels,” the U.S. Attorney’s office said at the time.

At the time, Hezbollah refuted the charges, saying they were “another attempt to tarnish the image of the resistance in Lebanon.”

“Our relentless pursuit of global criminal networks showed that the U.S. banking system was exploited to launder drug trafficking funds through West Africa and into Lebanon,” Leonhart said Monday.

“DEA and our partners are attacking these groups and their financial infrastructure, while establishing clear links between drug trafficking proceeds and terrorist funding,” she said.

Bharara said: “We will use every resource at our disposal to separate terrorists and narco-traffickers, and the banks that work with them, from their illicit funds.”