A California woman was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport this weekend after federal prosecutors said she had facilitated millions of dollars worth of covert weapons sales for the Iranian government.
Shamim Mafi, 44, of Los Angeles, was arrested on Saturday while attempting to board a flight to Turkey, according to Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for Central California.
“Anyone who violates United States sanctions laws will be vigorously prosecuted by the DOJ. Great work by @FBILosAngeles and the federal prosecutors in my office,” Mr. Essayli said in a post on X.
Federal investigators accused Ms. Mafi, a legal U.S. resident, of functioning as a proxy for Iranian intelligence in Los Angeles, where they said she set up a front company and positioned herself as a middleman between the Iranian government and arms buyers, according to a 69-page complaint.
Prosecutors say Ms. Mafi helped broker millions of dollars in sales of drones, bombs, bomb fuses, assault weapons and ammunition, much of it through a company called Atlas International Business LLC and a similarly named entity she established in Oman.
The account of her operation illustrates how Iran has bolstered its treasury in recent years by selling the same drone technology it has used to cause havoc in Persian Gulf countries in retaliation for attacks by the United States and Israel.
Iran is widely seen to have covertly sold weapons to Sudanese government forces for use in that country’s bloody civil war. Iran’s government and Sudan’s military are subject to American sanctions.
Among the deals she was accused of making is a sale of more than $60 million worth of drones between from Iran to the Sudanese defense ministry, according to court documents.
Born in Iran in 1981, Ms. Mafi became a lawful permanent resident of the United States in 2016, according to court documents. She settled in Woodland Hills, an affluent Los Angeles neighborhood that borders the Santa Monica Mountains, the complaint said.
She maintained contacts with members of Iranian intelligence whom she had known since childhood, the complaint said, and coordinated closely with them and high-level Iranian government officials.
Ms. Mafi was interviewed regularly by agents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection when she entered the United States between 2021 and 2024, and she often volunteered her ties with the Iranian government, including that her first husband was an Iranian intelligence officer, according to prosecutors. She said she had knowledge of how the Iranian government evaded sanctions and engaged in money laundering, and claimed that her work was focused on arranging shipments of medical aid to African countries through the Gulf, prosecutors said.
Ms. Mafi was brokering arms deals on behalf of the Iranian government as recently as 2025, according to court documents.
Ms. Mafi has been charged with weapons-related offenses, including exporting weapons without a proper license. If convicted, she faces up to 20 years in prison. She was expected to appear in court in Los Angeles on Monday afternoon.
Declan Walsh contributed reporting.
Ali Watkins covers international news for The Times and is based in Belfast.
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