On the night of April 18, federal agents intercepted Shamim Mafi at Los Angeles International Airport as she attempted to board a flight to Istanbul. The 44-year-old Iranian national and U.S. permanent resident was arrested on charges of trafficking arms on behalf of the Iranian government. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli stated that she is charged with “brokering the sale of drones, bombs, bomb fuses, and millions of rounds of ammunition manufactured by Iran and sold to Sudan.” She has pleaded not guilty. Her trial is scheduled for June 23.
In addition to alleged arms trafficking, the case has uncovered a logistics network that has been moving Iranian weapons through Sudan for more than a decade. The pipeline has survived Israeli airstrikes and the Abraham Accords and is now operating at a scale that dwarfs anything previously prosecuted in a U.S. courtroom.
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