The Justice Department has charged two Iranians with smuggling missile components bound for Houthi rebels that were seized in the Arabian Sea in January during a nighttime search that resulted in the deaths of two Navy SEALs, according to a court document unsealed on Wednesday.
The two men, brothers who work for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, are accused of conspiring to provide material support to Iran’s program for weapons of mass destruction and remain at large.
A third man, a Pakistani citizen who was captain on the vessel, was also charged. He was taken into custody with three other men who were captured when U.S. personnel boarded the ship, known as a dhow, which was packed with weapons. The others were charged earlier this year with related crimes in a federal court in Virginia.
The charges against the brothers, Shahab and Yunus Mir’kazei, come as tensions escalate between the United States and Iran, which has vowed revenge for the assassination of a senior Hamas leader near Tehran last month. The Iran-allied Houthis, who might take part in any retaliation, have been designated a terrorist group by the State Department.
The charges stem from the interdiction of a suspicious boat, with 14 crew members aboard, off the coast of Somalia by the Lewis B. Puller under the cover of darkness.
A joint force of SEALs and members of the U.S. Coast Guard, boarded the brightly painted, multi-decked dhow off the coast of Somalia, and conducted a search. They soon found “critical components for medium range ballistic missiles and anti-ship cruise missiles, including to include a warhead and propulsion and guidance components,” prosecutors said.
As the commandos tried to board, one member of the SEAL team appeared to slip off the boarding ladder or was swept away by a high wave, officials said. Another jumped into the water to try to save the first officer, but both disappeared below the waves.
Their bodies have not been recovered.
They were among the first-known U.S. fatalities in Washington’s campaign against the Houthis, who have launched dozens of attacks on ships in the Red Sea since November, roiling the global shipping industry.
Prosecutors said the captain, Muhammad Pahlawan, worked closely with the Mir’kazei brothers, who funded an operation to smuggle missile components from Iran to the Somalian coast, where they would be distributed to Houthi commanders in Yemen.
They made multiple trips at the time of the boat’s capture, and were about to transfer the missile components to another dhow when they were intercepted, according to the charges.
The court papers included one curious, unexplained detail: The Iranian authorities arrested Mr. Pahlawan and other crew members after they returned to Iran from a smuggling voyage in December 2023. He was later released and resumed his operations, prosecutors said.
When U.S. forces intercepted the dhow, Mr. Pahlawan first ordered his crew to outrun their pursuers, then told them to burn the boat — then instructed them to say he was the boat’s mechanic, not its captain, according to prosecutors.
After U.S. personnel boarded the boat, they discovered a heap of rope-bound bundles that were found to be high-speed cameras used in weapons systems and parts for Iranian-made anti-shipping missiles, including a warhead, motor systems, guidance components and radar antenna assemblies.
Mr. Pahlawan’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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