Due to its long history of funding Colombian militias, Chiquita, the world's largest banana distributor, is now lobbying Congress to block a 9/11 victim's bill that would make it easier to sue organizations that sponsor terrorist groups.

According to a report exclusively published by The Daily Beast, for years the banana company paid off Colombian organizations classified by the United States as terrorist groups. As a result, it has spent $780,000 over the past year and a half to lobby against the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), legislation sponsored by families of 9/11 victims seeking to impose civil liabilities on people that aided and abetted terrorist groups in other countries.

The purpose of JASTA is to allow victims of terrorism and their families to seek damages from companies that finance international terrorist groups and implicate Saudi financiers of the World Trade Center attacks in American civil courts. However, if the bill is passed into law, Chiquita could be held liable for its past terrorist-funding actions in Colombia. Back in 2007, Chiquita pleaded guilty to funneling $1.7 million in a series of payments from 1997 to 2004 to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a drug trafficking ring and right-wing paramilitary group. Chiquita insisted that the company was being extorted for funds by the paramilitary group, and that the payments were made to protect their employees in South America. Nevertheless, they were forced to pay a $25 million fine by the U.S. government.

Now Chiquita lawyers say that JASTA would reopen civil claims against the company. "Chiquita's sole interest is to ensure that the legislation does not inadvertently promote litigation against individuals and companies who, like Chiquita, were victims of extortion by terrorist groups," read a company statement.

Thanks to their lobbying efforts, JASTA remains stalled in the House Judiciary Committee, reports The Wire. In response, the families of 9/11 victims are speaking out.

"I think Chiquita should mind their own bananas and let justice be served," Terry Strada, the close relative of a 9/11 victim, told The Daily Beast.