Suspected arms dealer Shamim Mafi, 44, was snatched up by the FBI Saturday with cash she earned brokering weapons deals between Iran and other nations, including Sudan
An Iranian national was taken into custody at Los Angeles International Airport on Saturday night and charged with brokering deals for Iranian drones, bombs, and millions of rounds of ammunition bound for Sudan, federal prosecutors say.
Shamim Mafi, 44, of Woodland Hills, was snatched up by agents with the FBI’s Iran Counterintelligence Squad assigned to the Los Angeles Field Office, who wrote in an affidavit that the green card holder “conspired with others to perpetrate an unlawful scheme to broker the sale of weapons, weapons components, and ammunition on behalf of the Government of Iran.”
Mafi, an Iranian U.S. green card holder since 2016, sold drones, bombs, bomb-fuses, assault weapons, and “millions of rounds of ammunition,” the FBI wrote in an affidavit.
The suspected arms dealer’s life in the complaint reads like a spy novel. Born in Iran, she spent time as a younger woman in Istanbul before moving to Los Angeles in 2016, where she became a U.S. green card holder. She moves frequently around the world from her home base in the San Fernando Valley to places that include Iran, Turkey, Oman, and other countries where arms trafficking is prolific. She has been under federal surveillance in California since 2021, according to the FBI affidavit, which also states she was in frequent contact with an Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security handler.
Her first husband, Mafi, told the FBI, was a MOIS officer, which is Iran’s spy arm. The FBI notes in the complaint that the “U.S. government has imposed sanctions on MOIS and its leaders for actions taken against the interests of the United States and other nations.”
Mafi, according to the complaint, maintains a company with an unnamed co-conspirator based in Oman that brokered deals for “air-drop dump bombs” and other Iranian-manufactured weapons to foreign governments.
Last year, the FBI says, the company brokered a $70 million deal for the government of Sudan to buy Iranian drones. Mafi, federal prosecutors say, was paid nearly $7 million in fees after she “coordinated the Sudanese delegation’s travel to Iran.”
Shamim Mafi, an Iranian national living in Woodland Hills, was arrested by the FBI as a suspected arms dealerCredit: Department of Justice
Scroll to continue reading
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, prosecutors say.
Weaponry Mafi is accused of helping Iran sell to the government of Sudan Credit: Department of Justice
Mafi is expected to make her initial appearance in court on Monday afternoon. If convicted as charged, she faces a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. She did tell the FBI she could provide “extensive information about the Iranian financial system and money laundering channels used by the Government of Iran,” according to the complaint.