The dramatic arrest in Nigeria this month of three Hezbollah operatives was enabled by close cooperation between Nigerian security officials and Israel’s Mossad and Aman intelligence services, respectively the Jewish state’s external and military intelligence agencies.

Nigeria’s secret service said Thursday it had discovered a cache of weapons belonging to a Hezbollah cell in a house in Kano, where Lebanese nationals had concealed weapons to be used for attacks against “Israeli and Western targets.” Nigerian authorities said they arrested three Lebanese in northern Nigeria on suspicion of being members of Hezbollah and that a raid on one of their residences had revealed a stash of weapons. Kano, located in northern Nigeria, has a large Lebanese community.

The Mossad and Aman are charged with among other things monitoring Iran and Hezbollah’s global activities.

The Tower has learned that Nigerian military and security agencies have recently enlisted the help of their Israeli counterparts in fighting local Muslim extremists as well as global jihadi groups. The notorious Boko Haram terror group is the best known of these Nigerian extremist organizations. Additionally, the Nigerian federal government has sought assistance from Israeli security experts and to acquire Israeli security technology. The Israeli companies IAI and Elbit are reportedly negotiating deals with Nigeria to provide such technology, including electronic fences for border defense and drones.

The Nigerian incident is at least the tenth case in which Israeli intelligence agencies are known to have worked with local security services to foil attempts by Hezbollah and Iran to strike against Jewish and Israeli targets. Previous cases occurred in Cyprus, Turkey, Thailand, Georgia, and Azerbaijan.

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