A Pakistani man was convicted on Thursday for his role in smuggling Iranian missile components bound for Houthi rebels, after being captured in a military operation last year that resulted in the deaths of two Navy SEALs, the Justice Department said.
The man, Muhammad Pahlawan, 49, was the captain of a small boat that was intercepted by the Navy ship Lewis B. Puller off Somalia in January 2024 and boarded by SEALs and U.S. Coast Guard members, prosecutors said. They found “ballistic missile components, anti-ship cruise missile components and a warhead,” consistent with weapons the Houthis have used against merchant ships and Navy vessels in the Red Sea.
Mr. Pahlawan was taken into custody with three other men.Prosecutors accused him of working with two Iranian brothers affiliated with Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps to smuggle the weapon components from Iran to the coast of Somalia. They said his vessel was about to transfer the missile parts to another ship for final delivery to Houthi commanders in Yemen when he was intercepted.
Prosecutors said that Mr. Pahlawan made multiple smuggling runs between August 2023 and January 2024.
The court papers included a curious, unexplained detail: The Iranian authorities had arrested Mr. Pahlawan and other crew members weeks before the Americans captured him, in December 2023, after Mr. Pahlawan’s boat returned to Iran from a smuggling voyage. He was released and resumed his operations, prosecutors said.
A federal jury in Virginia convicted Mr. Pahlawan of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. He was also convicted of threatening the lives of his crew members and their families after being boarded. Most of the crimes that he was convicted of have a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, the Justice Department said. Sentencing will be in September.
As Navy SEALs attempted to board Mr. Pahlawan’s vessel last year, one member of the SEAL team appeared to slip off the boarding ladder or was swept away by a wave, officials said. Another jumped into the water to try to save the first officer, but both disappeared below the waves. The Navy declared them dead, and their bodies were never recovered.
A Navy investigation concluded that the SEALs’ deaths were preventable, with a final report criticizing deficiencies in training and procedure. The review concluded that the two sailors sank quickly in the rough Arabian Sea because they were weighed down by heavy equipment.
Chris Cameron is a Times reporter covering Washington, focusing on breaking news and the Trump administration.
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