BOGOTA - Colombian authorities arrested three men with alleged links to the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah as part of an international drug sting, the attorney general's office said.

Three Middle Eastern men along with eighteen Colombians, nine of whom are wanted by the United States, were arrested during the worldwide drugs investigation that began in July 2006, the attorney general's office said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Arab suspects, who were of Lebanese and Jordanian descent, "coordinated the shipment of drugs to their countries of origin, and used front companies to bring the cash into Colombia," the statement said.

Some of the cash was "was distributed in Middle Eastern countries for the supposed financing of 'terrorist groups' such as Hezbollah," it added.

The three men, identified as Shekry Mahmud Harb, Ali Mohammed Abdul Rahim and Zacaria Hussein Harb, were captured on October 13 in Bogota, a source in the attorney general's office told AFP.

The operation, called "Titan," has already seen some 90 people arrested in various countries, authorities said.

The crime ring had operatives in Guatemala, Panama, Venezuela, the Middle East and Europe, bringing cash from illegal drug sales into international markets, authorities said.

Colombian police have confiscated some 740,000 dollars, 360 kilograms of cocaine and five kilograms of heroin, as well as two airplanes, a boat, and various vehicles and jewels, the attorney general's office said. -AFP