A Pakistani man has been jailed for 40 years in a US prison after attempting to smuggle ballistic missile parts from Iran to the Houthis in Yemen.
US forces boarded an unflagged small vessel in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Somalia on January 11 2024, during a mission where two Navy Seals drowned.
Special Warfare Officer Christopher Chambers lost his grip and fell into the water during the operation while Special Warfare Officer First Class Nathan Gage Ingram jumped in to try to save him, the BBC reports.
The US boarding team found 14 individual mariners on the vessel, including the captain, Muhammad Pahlawan.
Iranian-made advanced conventional weaponry, including ballistic missile components, anti-ship cruise missile components, and a warhead, were seized during a search of the boat.
The weaponry found on the vessel was consistent with the weapons used by the Houthi rebels against military and cargo ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden following the October 7 attacks, the US Department of Justice said.
Pahlawan is understood to have threatened the lives of his crew members and their families after lying to the US team that boarded the boat.
He also told other crew members to lie.
Pahlawan’s trip is understood to have been part of a larger operation from around August 2023 to January 2024 to smuggle materials from Iran to the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
He is believed to have worked with two Iranian brothers Shahab Mir’kazei, and Yunus Mir’kazei who were affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Pahlawan completed multiple smuggling voyages, coordinated and funded by the Mir’kazei brothers, by travelling with cargo from Iran to the coast of Somalia and transporting that cargo to another vessel for a nighttime ship-to-ship transfer.
He worked with the brothers to prepare the boat for these smuggling voyages, received specific coordinates from them for the ship-to-ship transfers, and received multiple payments from them for his role in the smuggling operation.
US federal prosecutors said the components found on Pahlawan's boat were "some of the most sophisticated weapon systems that Iran proliferates to other terrorist groups".
Pahlawan was sentenced on Thursday, having been previously convicted on five counts - including terrorism offences and transporting weapons of mass destruction, according to the BBC.
The broadcaster reports two of the five counts will run concurrently for 20 years while three countries will run consecutive to that, making a total of 40 years.
