US Charges Three for Smuggling Iranian Weapons to Yemen's Houthis

A U.S. federal court has charged three men, including two Iranian brothers and a Pakistani national, for an attempt to smuggle Iranian weapons that would be used by Houthi rebels for attacks on maritime shipping.

According to the court documents, Shahab Mir’kazei and Yunus Mir’kazei work for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, while Muhammad Pahlawan, is a Pakistani citizen who allegedly worked for the Mir’kazei brothers as the captain of a dhow used as a smuggling vessel.

Pahlawan allegedly worked with Shahab to prepare the dhow for multiple smuggling voyages, and Shahab paid Pahlawan in Iranian Rials from a bank account in Shahab’s name. Pahlawan allegedly arranged to receive payments from Shahab and Yunus in Iran and distribute the money to his family and others.

On the night of January 11, U.S. Central Command Navy forces operating from the USS Lewis B. Puller, including Navy SEALs and members of the U.S. Coast Guard, boarded the dhow off the coast of Somalia. Two Navy SEALs lost their lives during the interdiction.

As alleged, the U.S. boarding team encountered 14 individual mariners on the vessel, including Pahlawan. During a search of the dhow, the U.S. boarding team allegedly located and seized what is believed to be Iranian-made advanced conventional weaponry, which according to preliminary analysis, includes critical components for medium range ballistic missiles and anti-ship cruise missiles. The type of weaponry found aboard the dhow is allegedly consistent with the weaponry used by the Houthi rebel forces in recent attacks on merchant ships and U.S. military ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

The seizure of Iranian-supplied advanced conventional weapons (ACW) to the Houthis was the first since the beginning of Houthi attacks against merchant ships in November 2023.

Mir’kazei brothers and Pahlawan have been indicted for conspiring to provide and providing material support to Iran’s weapons of mass destruction program resulting in death and conspiring to commit violence against maritime navigation and maritime transport involving weapons of mass destruction resulting in death. Pahlawan is also charged with providing materially false information to U.S. Coast Guard officers during the boarding of the dhow regarding the vessel’s captain and witness intimidation for threatening one of the crewmembers on the dhow. 

Pahlawan is currently awaiting trial, while Shahab and Yunus remain at large. If convicted, all three men face maximum penalties of life in prison.

Yemen's militant Houthi group has been launching drone and missile strikes in Red Sea shipping lanes since November, saying that it acts in solidarity with Palestinians in Israel's war in Gaza.

In dozens of attacks, the Houthis have sunk two vessels, seized another and killed at least three seafarers.