US authorities have arrested an Iranian woman for trafficking arms to Sudan on behalf of her country, federal prosecutors have said.<\/p>\n
Shamim Mafi, 44, was arrested at Los Angeles airport on Saturday and is accused of \u201cbrokering the sale of drones, bombs, bomb fuses, and millions of rounds of ammunition manufactured by Iran and sold to Sudan\u201d, First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli said on X.<\/p>\n
The alleged sales were to Sudan\u2019s defence ministry, including a \u20ac60m drone contract, court documents show.<\/p>\n
Mafi, who has not yet commented on the allegations, is expected to appear in court later on Monday. If convicted, she could face a jail sentence of up to 20 years.<\/p>\n
An FBI criminal complaint filed in court, a copy of which was obtained by the BBC, says Mafi coordinated a \u201cSudanese delegation\u2019s travel to Iran, received over \u20ac6m in payments, and issued payment receipts\u201d for the drone deal.<\/p>\n
She submitted \u201ca letter of intent\u201d to Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to broker the sale of 55,000 bomb fuses to Sudan\u2019s defence ministry, it adds.<\/p>\n
According to Essayli, Mafi is \u201can Iranian national who became a lawful permanent resident of the United States in 2016\u201d.<\/p>\n
She is accused of breaching US sanctions against Iran, which prohibit US persons from transacting or dealing in Iranian goods or services without authorisation.<\/p>\n
Court documents describe her \u201crepeated use of informal exchange entities across multiple transactions\u201d in the arms deals as a \u201cdeliberate effort\u2026 to evade US sanctions\u201d.<\/p>\n
She is said to have been ready to board a flight from California to Turkey when she was arrested.<\/p>\n
Essayli\u2019s post included images of a woman presumed to be Mafi surrounded by security agents at an airport, a drone on tarmac and bundles of cash.<\/p>\n
Sudan has been engulfed in a devastating civil war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces for the past three years.<\/p>\n
The war has resulted in the world\u2019s worst humanitarian crisis, according to the UN, with tens of thousands of people killed, and millions displaced.<\/p>\n
Foreign powers have been accused of backing both sides and providing ammunition, further fuelling the conflict.<\/p>\n
Rights group Amnesty International previously said it had found evidence of weapons manufactured in Serbia, Russia, China, Turkey, Yemen and UAE being used in Sudan.<\/p>\n
Iran has also been accused of supporting Sudan\u2019s army with weapons in the past, although Sudan denied it.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US authorities have arrested an Iranian woman for trafficking arms to Sudan on behalf of her country, federal prosecutors have said. Shamim Mafi, 44, was arrested at Los Angeles airport on Saturday and is accused of \u201cbrokering the sale of drones, bombs, bomb fuses, and millions of rounds of ammunition manufactured by Iran and sold […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138403\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}